A common assumption in the IR and PE literature is that international institutions, and the policies they embody, are public goods. What does the economics literature say on this score? That is the topic of the first section of this chapter, in which I review traditional and new trade theories and look at how one might represent the “good” of free trade. In a second section, I relate the trade deficit to the balance of payments and the international investment position, and examine different perspectives on their origin, and why they are normally shunned. A third section explores how running serial deficits has been good for America, allowing consumers to enjoy goods beyond the production and export possibility frontier, while allowing firms to expand the production and sale of final goods by importing cheap intermediate inputs. A fourth section suggests that import expansion has been a source of bargaining power, benefiting American firms by offering them opportunities to extend their global reach. By expanding imports, the American government has been in a good position to exchange access to the American market for American access to foreign markets. The last section of this chapter demonstrates how the United States has benefited from the trade regime and how it has used the threat of exclusion to advantage under various configurations of power.