> Normal economics does not talk about "exporting currency"
International finance is almost entirely about balancing the current and capital accounts [1].
The trade deficit is just one part of the current account [2]. Zeroing out the trade balance ceteris paribus requires a change in the capital account, i.e. foreign ownership of domestic assets and/or domestic ownership of foreign assets. If we’re just reducing the current account with tariffs, that means reducing both. Necessarily. This is one of the closest things to a law economics offers because it’s based on identities. The only run-around to it is the reserve account printing domestic currency, and we know how that goes.
International finance is almost entirely about balancing the current and capital accounts [1].
The trade deficit is just one part of the current account [2]. Zeroing out the trade balance ceteris paribus requires a change in the capital account, i.e. foreign ownership of domestic assets and/or domestic ownership of foreign assets. If we’re just reducing the current account with tariffs, that means reducing both. Necessarily. This is one of the closest things to a law economics offers because it’s based on identities. The only run-around to it is the reserve account printing domestic currency, and we know how that goes.
[1] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/031615/whats-differ...
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_trade