Breitbart Argues Against Establishment's Wishful Thinking on Trade Deficits

Breitbart Business Digest examines the establishment's case against tariffs and finds it lacking in addressing the real issues behind the U.S. trade deficit.

Mar. 13, 2026 at 12:28am

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The article criticizes a recent Financial Times op-ed by Harvard economist Gita Gopinath, who argued that the U.S. does not have a genuine balance-of-payments crisis and that the solutions lie in fiscal consolidation in Washington and consumption-led rebalancing in Beijing. The Breitbart piece contends that Gopinath's analysis gets the problem and causation wrong, and offers unrealistic wishes instead of real solutions to the persistent U.S. trade deficit.

Why it matters

The Trump administration's new tariffs are based on a 1970s statute that gives the president authority to impose duties to address fundamental imbalances in international payments. Gopinath's arguments, if accepted, could undermine the legal justification for these tariffs, making it important to scrutinize her claims.

The details

The article takes issue with Gopinath's claims that the deterioration in America's net international investment position is largely a valuation story rather than a genuine external crisis, and that the real answers lie in fiscal consolidation in Washington and consumption-led rebalancing in Beijing. It argues that even if valuation effects explain much of the worsening in the stock of net liabilities, they do not erase the flow problem of the U.S. running large trade and current-account deficits. The piece also contends that Gopinath's proposed remedies are unrealistic, with no possibility of Congress approving a balanced budget anytime soon, and China unlikely to voluntarily abandon its mercantilist policies.

  • The article was published on March 13, 2026.

The players

Gita Gopinath

A Harvard economist and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, who wrote an op-ed in the Financial Times arguing against the need for tariffs to address the U.S. trade deficit.

Donald Trump

The former U.S. president who implemented new tariffs based on a 1970s statute giving the president authority to address balance-of-payments imbalances.

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What they’re saying

“Tariffs, she warns, may create the very crisis they are supposed to prevent.”

— Gita Gopinath

The takeaway

This article highlights the ongoing debate over the U.S. trade deficit and the appropriate policy responses, with the Breitbart piece challenging the establishment view represented by Gopinath and arguing that the real solutions require addressing the underlying structural issues driving the persistent trade imbalance.