Trade Deficit

Washington. -- By drastically increasing the tariff on several models of luxury Japanese automobiles, the Clinton administration has attempted to place the blame for the U.S. trade deficit on protectionist barriers.Unfair Japanese practices are only one explanation for the deficit, which reached $108.1 billion last year. Others blame inferior American products or prices, driving American consumer purchases elsewhere. Labor Secretary Robert Reich points to the federal budget deficit and low American savings rate.

More than 70 percent of the oil used in the United States is for transportation. If we want to reduce oil imports and address the trade deficit, we need to find ways to make our cars and trucks more efficient and run on cleaner fuels. Such opportunities exist - and must be encouraged. Advanced truck technologies are a good place to start, if we really care about reducing our oil dependence, saving jobs and improving our economy. Targeted public investment can transform our trucking sector in the near term.

NEW YORK -- A decline in exports caused the U.S. merchandise trade deficit to widen slightly in May, to a seasonally adjusted $4.574 billion, the Commerce Department said yesterday.Exports fell 0.9 percent, to $35.304 billion from $35.632 billion, and imports fell 0.4 percent, to $39.878 billion from April's $40.139 billion.The April deficit was revised to $4.507 billion from the $4.779 billion reported originally.Though May's deficit was much narrower than the $4.9 billion forecast, it is likely to continue to grow as imports rise amid increased consumer demand as the economy pulls out of recession, economists said.

The China currency bill is the most significant jobs bill Congress could pass. It enjoys the bipartisan support of nearly 80 Republican and Democratic senators, yet President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner oppose it, illustrating that both are out of touch with the problems besetting the American economy. The nearly $600 billion trade deficit is destroying more American jobs than the mortgage crisis, too much business regulation and high health care costs combined.

In the world of economics, there are few topics that polarize us as does talk about the U.S. trade deficit. For the worrywarts among us, it isn't just that our nation spends (imports) more than it takes in (exports) that causes such angst - after all, that's standard operating procedure for many Americans. Their fear instead stems from the understanding that the trade shortfall has to be financed through foreign debt - or by selling our securities, properties and even our companies to overseas interests.

Consumers' appetite increases risk as other nations regain strength The U.S. trade deficit swelled to a record $29.2 billion in February as oil import prices hit their highest level since the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the government reported this month. And while exports fell for a second straight month, imports hit a record $113.4 billion as U.S. consumer demand continued unabated. Even before the numbers were released, Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers urged trade partners to do more to balance lopsided world growth by spurring their economies as engines of growth rather than relying on a booming United States.

WARREN BUFFETT predicts further gloom for the currency that made his fortune. The financial press is beside itself with adoring agreement, savoring the Omaha tycoon's corn-fed metaphors and apparently expecting the U.S. dollar to imitate - I don't know - the Indonesian rupiah any day now. The dollar's recent decline against the euro, yen and other currencies is "likely to continue," he warns, "by a degree that could prove unsettling to financial markets."...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. trade deficit fell sharply in March to $4.05 billion, which is 26.5 percent lower than the previous month and the smallest monthly gap since June 1983, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.Imports of foreign-made goods fell 2.7 percent, to $38.04 billion, the lowest monthly total since January 1989. Exports of U.S.-made goods rose 1.2 percent, to $33.99 billion, a total exceeded only twice, in January and October.While the shrinking U.S. trade gap is unquestionably good news, analysts said, imports fell largely because the recession cut consumer spending, and imports will probably rise again as the recession ends.

NEW YORK -- The dollar sagged against the German mark yesterday as investors shrugged off the smaller-than-expected June U.S. trade deficit and sold the U.S. currency anyway.The U.S. trade gap narrowed 7.7 percent, to $6.59 billion, in June. The average forecast by economists in a Bloomberg Business News survey was for a $7.2 billion deficit in June."Basically, today was just a continuation of the rolling bullishness for the Deutschemark," said Joe Cambria, a trader at Banque Paribas. "The dollar still seems to be under pressure against the European currencies."

U.S. manufacturers have China on the brain, blaming the world's biggest nation for the loss of 3 million U.S. factory jobs since 1998. "I think that the China economy is the 800-pound gorilla now in world trade," Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, said on CNBC last week. "The largest trade deficit, over a hundred billion, is with China. And most of that, or at least a lot of it, comes from the fact that their currency is 30 to 40 percent undervalued."

Your editorial on pending trade agreements ("The benefits of trade," Oct. 6) reports projected benefits to the depressed U.S. economy from the proposed trade deals with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama of $12 billion in exports and tens of thousands of jobs. Though smaller than the 200,000 jobs and untold billions in exports to Canada and Mexico that NAFTA was expected to provide, the new projections are equally bogus. In fact, America's trade deficit with Canada (which averaged a modest $8.1 billion in the four years preceding NAFTA)

America is in crisis. The new normal is not good enough. The unemployed can't find jobs, the old can't retire and those in between live in constant fear of being tapped on the shoulder and thrust into the abyss. Property values are lower than a snake's belly, stocks are diving and gold - the "fear asset" - seems the only sound investment. Thursday, President Barack Obama will address Congress and is expected to propose ideas that only maintain the status quo, or perhaps even make things worse.

While the news media concentrates on Japan's nuclear problems, we in the United States face a devastating financial "tsunami" of our own. We are currently looking at unbridled government deficits of at least $1 trillion per year as Congress haggles over extending the debt limit — now at about $14 trillion — and offers minuscule cost reductions. As we engage in military action in Libya, we cannot continue to add hundreds of billions of dollars per year to the deficit in unending Middle East wars.

The economy added 103,000 jobs in December — less than expected. Unemployment did fall to 9.4 percent, largely because 260,000 adults dropped out of the labor force and are no longer counted as unemployed by the government. Clearly, our economy is nowhere near out of the woods. The president's $800 billion stimulus package gave the economy a lift, and additional tax cuts in 2011 will help too, but those did not address structural problems holding back jobs creation — and principal among those is the huge trade deficit.

Will the economic recovery be enduring - V shaped? Or will it collapse after a short time - W shaped? For the middle class, it may be none of the above - an X. By conventional wisdom, the housing bubble, credit crisis and collapse in consumer spending caused the recession. With home sales rising, new cars flying off lots and Wall Street profits soaring, analysts see an imminent recovery. But the economy is running on steroids. About 90 percent of existing home sales are distress sales: foreclosures and homeowners in financial difficulties.

State opens trade, investment office in Vietnam Vietnam is the latest foreign locale where Maryland will open an office to foster trade and investment, the state Department of Business and Economic Development announced Friday. The new office, to be co-located in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, brings the state's total number of foreign offices to 13. As with others that opened around the world in the past year, the Vietnam office will operate on a contingency basis, with any future state funding tied to the ability to attract companies and jobs to Maryland.

WASHINGTON -- The nation's trade deficit soared in February to its worst level in six years as the strong U.S. economy went on a worldwide buying binge while its economically weaker trading partners bought less merchandise from U.S. producers.The Commerce Department reported yesterday that the trade deficit in goods and services was $9.71 billion in February, up sharply from January's imbalance of $6.64 billion. The deficit in goods alone rose by one-fifth, to $13.89 billion, while the traditional U.S. surplus in services like tourism, brokerage, investment banking, insurance and film rentals dipped about 11 percent, to $4.18 billion.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. trade deficit with Japan jumped 2.4 percent in August, sending the dollar down briefly yesterday near its lowest level since the end of World War II.By the end of the day, the dollar had recovered slightly, to 97.35 yen to the dollar, but it was clear that the revival of the U.S. currency's strength that surrounded a new trade agreement with Japan late last month was a flicker, not a recovery.The Clinton administration took some solace in the fact that the monthly trade deficit with the rest of the world improved significantly, shrinking 12.9 percent, to $9.74 billion, on the strength of a surge in exports.

Va. company buys Foundation Coal In a merger that would create the country's third-largest coal producer, Foundation Coal Holdings Inc. of Linthicum Heights said yesterday that it intends to combine with a Virginia competitor in a $2 billion deal. The merger of Foundation and Alpha Natural Resources Inc., based in Abingdon, Va., would create a new company that operates a combined 59 coal mines and 14 processing plants, and is worth more than $3.5 billion, company officials said. The merger is an all-stock transaction valued at about $2 billion, with the new company assuming roughly $530 million in debt from Foundation.

Trade has everything to do with America's economic dilemma, but officials from President-elect Barack Obama on down have had very little to say about the potentially devastating impact of a continuing trade deficit. Americans are borrowing and selling assets at a pace of about $400 billion a year to buy foreign oil and goods. U.S. foreign debt exceeds $6.5 trillion, and the debt service comes to about $2,000 a year for every working American. The deficit is caused by a combination of an overvalued dollar against the Chinese yuan, a dysfunctional national energy policy that increases U.S. dependence on foreign oil, and the competitive woes of the three domestic automakers.