In the “Letters to the Editor” section of today’s Wall Street Journal, Felix Dupuy of Whitefish, Montana laments that the 41 million U.S. jobs supported by trade come with a $500 million trade deficit, which he claims is largely paid for by the Treasury “in the form of increased debt.” (Letters, July 27, 2016)  The assertion is a non-sequitur.  The connection between the U.S. current account deficit and the U.S. fiscal deficit is tenuous at best.  The former moreover represents neither harm to the American economy nor any debt to the Treasury.  To the contrary, the current account deficit is an indication of the greater prosperity of  the U.S. relative to the rest of the world.  Because Americans are rich, they buy more from others than others buy from them.  Also, the current account deficit does not increase the public debt.  The Treasury has nothing to do with private sector trades that happen to cross borders.  Finally, foreign sellers accept dollars for goods only because those dollars represent claims on American goods.  That the dollars are not repatriated in some arbitrary time frame (one year) is unimportant.  Ultimately, our imports must be paid for with exports when foreign dollar holders redeem their claims.  —  By contrast, the fiscal deficit is real debt arising from unpaid-for federal spending.  It is also cumulative, now standing now at a $19 trillion burden on future generations of Americans.  (See also my earlier Posts on trade economics here and here.)