ShmoopTube

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Finance a la shmoop... what is balance of trade...up, down, up, down yeah all right [Squirrels riding a see-saw]

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think of balance of trade the same way you would think of that seesaw in your

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schoolyard instead of the big-boned third-grader

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weighing in against the you know waiting to grow kindergartner when it comes to [Ship sailing out of harbor]

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international economies and the goods they buy and sell from into each other

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we have exports this guy and imports this guy if two countries have a balance

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in trade well then the financial weight on this seesaw thing here is even the

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three future NFL linemen weigh about the same as eleven future tax auditors yeah [Linemen players and tax auditors in a see-saw]

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but that's rarely the case when countries trade among each other

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and if you're on the seesaw you want to be heavy like fat with feet firmly

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planted on the ground where you are exporting or selling to another country [Goods travelling to foreign countries]

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a whole lot more stuff than you're importing what you want is to be

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collecting boatloads of their currency or oil or velcro kilts from Scotland and

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as you capture more and more of their trade or wealth [Wealth sucked into the US]

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the powerful imbalanced one well that'd be you here you get to have more and

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more influence on them and the world they live in is there a way to gain this

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system cheat? well sorta yeah politicians and governments get very nervous when

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the balance of trade is not in their favor and they have the ability to pile [Imports and exports pile on a see-saw]

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a bunch of books on their side of the seesaw to help their skinny accountants

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compete better how do they do this magic you ask okay yeah we know you didn't ask

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but we'll tell you anyway they smack a tax on goods they import from you like

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the US government in the middle of our loss of dominion over the auto industry [Auto industry logos land in a seesaw]

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to Japan and Korea and Germany well we placed a big fat tax on foreign cars

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being imported into the US and we still lost the war there so yeah the seesaw ie

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the balance of trade isn't always fair and by the way if you ever see this guy

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coming run at least feed him [Man running in a park]

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