The thing to watch for is not the balance of trade, it's the balance of trade and investment. As long as investment balances out trade, and enough of that inves

The thing to watch for is not the balance of trade, it's the balance of trade and investment. As long as investment balances out trade, and enough of that investment is going into productive assets, it's all good. Many countries, including the US, have run trade deficits in the past for multiple decades and it's been fine. In those cases where it's not fine it's because the economy had nothing (or not enough) foreigners wanted, e.g. Russia in the late 90s. Yes if your economy collapses for some reason you'll have a deficit problem, but in fact past deficits don't affect that. They don't matter because the deficit was already invested in domestic assets. Since those assets change in value as your economy changes, it nets out. The foreigners already invested their money in your economy and they suffer as you suffer. However the past deficit isn't going to cause any such collapse. There would have to be some other additional factor. That's what history tells us actually happens, anyway.