Horizon

Why would anyone want to buy a new car?

Erm, because the current one is fourteen years old, smells like mildewed dog; has damaged door and trunk locks; has been broken into at least nine times; has been sideswiped, rear-ended, and deer-collided once each; has a leaky trunk; has a chronic front-end imbalance that wore through an axle a few years ago; and has a heater blower that only works on the top setting?

A newer used car is the actual likely replacement; but the economic question seemed more interesting for a new one. OK?

In terms of the trade deficit, I don't think there's any difference between a US-made car produced by a foreign-owned or domestic-owned factory. Anyway, if it's union-made, it meets with my approval, for what it's worth.

The UAW has a list of US-made union-made cars.

Erm, because the current one is fourteen years old (etc.)

Right, excellent grounds for buying a good used car. That wasn't my question.

Anyway, if it's union-made, it meets with my approval, for what it's worth.

Given that one of our local unions almost killed a Supreme Court Justice, the Governor of Pennsylvania, the Mayor of Philadelphia, and a US Senator or two recently, I wouldn't be quite so sanguine if I were you.

Hoping you can explain wtf that's about (sounds bizarre), as the Inkwire wants an elaborate registration before it will cough up the story.

My question -- which never mind if it isn't interesting -- had to do with the balance of payments stuff: if a foreign company running a factory in the U.S. (for example, the Toyota plant in Fremont, California) makes a profit from U.S. manufactures that are sold in the U.S., what is the effect on the U.S. trade defecit when the profits go out of the country to the foreign parent company?

My not-very-extensive understanding of these things is that companies like Toyota are not really "Japanese" any longer, just as Ford ceased to be a particularly American company decades ago. It's not as though the deposit for your car is dispatched off to Yokohama by registered mail.

Also, the profits may not go out of the country to the foreign parent -- they may be reinvested in the US side of the business, rather than being withdrawn and converted through an unfavorable exchange rate.