For October, the Census Bureau reported the trade deficit widened by 2.5 percentage points, with exports down 1.0% and imports up 1.5%.
From a year ago, exports are up 5.5% and imports are up 7.1%.
In US dollar terms, the October deficit is $68.3 billion, up from $64.1 billion in September, an increase of 6.5%.
These numbers will subtract a couple ticks from fourth-quarter GDP estimates. They will also have Trump howling about trade deficits.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
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Bam_man, yes, we are exporting paper in exchange for goods, a nice business if you can keep it going in perpetuity, but, unfortunately, eventually deficits do matter. In time those holding all those dollars want to own something more substantial, so they buy American businesses and real estate. If we keep it up long enough, we can do what the Indians did. We can trade out valuable land for bead and blankers, er cell phones and small appliances, that in a generation will be in the landfill.
@truthseeker, big banks are neck deep in lending against stock prices. Big PE firms and hedge funds borrow billions speculating in stocks. The only thing that matters to the owners of American companies are the stock price, because they have debt that must be re-paid. The solution is only in reining in the banks. But that requires having a government that is not under full regulatory capture.
I read that China was supposedly slashing the tariff on 187 imported items.
Hurricane distorted. We took a decent chunk of exports off line because of the storms.
Trumps trade policies already backfiring.
And we are the ones complaining about this?
We are taking in more “stuff” than we are sending out to the rest of the world and “paying” for it with funny money that is backed by nothing and created out of thin air.
from here: https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.html the fiscal defciti is the devil’s number of 666 a billion times. so.. where do “INVISIBLES” and capital retained overseas to evade US taxes go?
assuming C + G + i + (X-M) acually measures GDP, is it true that re-arranging that formula and holding Consumption and Investment constant, that G = (X-M) ? hence the external trade balance is equal to the fiscal deficit?
I expect the President will have his best minds working on writing up legislation to remedy this issue and he will be personally finding reps and senators to sponsor this legislation in their respective houses. That’s what good presidents do.