@eARCwelder (no country is linking military expenditure to trade deficit that i know of. Japan i think now runs a small trade deficit but its overall balance of payments remains positive. it’s really the overall current account deficit that represents the demand drag fiscal policy, potentially military, gets called to fill. one wldn’t expect, if a country did this, it would improve relations with surplus powers. the point is to make surplus countries perceive themselves as “financing” a threat.)