iPhones flying off the shelves may not be so great for the U.S.

This final note today about the trade deficit. No, the numbers didn’t come out today. That was a couple of weeks ago. But I saw an item in the Wall Street Journal today that’s too good not to pass on.

Y’know how people are always saying this country needs to invent more high tech gizmos that other countries will want to buy? Yeah, that might not work out so well. A pair of researchers in Japan have run the numbers and say the iPhone adds almost $2 billion a year to our deficit with China. Yes, it’s an American product. But it’s made over there. The way the statistics are kept, that’s a $2 billion hit against us.