Economics - General

US trade deficit

John Quiggin8 Comments

The US trade deficit came in marginally lower in September, but still above $US50 billion. There’s some evidence that the appreciation against the euro over the last four years is finally having an effect, and the more recent decline of the dollar to record-low levels against the euro may have more. But the improvement also included some surprising features like a decline in the value of oil imports, unlikely to be repeated any time soon. As General Glut notes

September’s trade deficit was still the third largest in history. The four largest in history have all occurred over the past four months.
He has a lot more posts with useful and interesting details

8 thoughts on “US trade deficit”

  1. This USDA report linked back from General Glut makes interesting reading. U.S. Cotton exports rose 62% last year largely from a combination of high prices and record production that was mirrored round the world. But as textile news indicates the global cotton supply is now at record levels. Of course, that other great cotton producer, China is affected as well.

    Current Chinese concerns are with their putative access for cotton goods to the US market under the WTO. The Xinhua net and Forbes/A.P. articles indicate the differing degree of concern felt in both camps about the looming ‘sock war’. I’d have thought that in the current situation the Chinese would feel that they have quite a bit of leverage.

    Any body taking odds on one of the big Japanese private banks falling over before Xmas :-!

  2. Big Trade deficit – so what? They’ve had big trade deficits before and it didn’t do them any harm.

  3. Know JS about cotton, but I’ve got people in China screaming for a couple of hundred tons of product.
    Anyone know where to get it?

  4. If the trade def is a problem – and plenty of ppl act as tho it is – then surely hope for improvement lies in the reconstruction of Iraq – once she is back online oil should weaken and the deficit will improve.

    If we can get Iraq up to 6 bpy then we will be looking better. Even the Chinese demand will not be such an issue then.

  6. Smartten up, John Quiggin, take your thick head out of the sand, see the light and smell the coffee : The euro has been appreciating over the US dollar in the last four years, not too long after George W. Bush first got in the presidency thank’s to his buddies in the USA Supreme Court, who voted to stop the Florida recount. During most of these last four years, it is the euro who has appreciated in value against the US dollar, not the other way around as you wrongly mentioned.

    Now, with another four more years of this cowboy warmong spending like a drunken sailor Bush regime, with record deficits increasing every month, more and more investors are losing confidence in the US economy…and are all putting their money in the European Union and even here in Canada. Just expect the euro to increase even more in value against the US dollar over the next four years…Barely three weeks after this last US election the euro has already jumped from 1.20 US to over 1.31 today….and wil keep on rising.

  7. Joseph, you should adopt a more civil tone and read posts more carefully before you bag them. All the points you raise have been discussed here at length.

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