US trade deficit hits record $109B in March

Fox Business ^ | May 4th. 2022 | Anders Hagstrom

[shadowlands1960]

It's the first ever monthly trade deficit to surpass $100 billion

The U.S. trade deficit hit a record $109.8 billion in March as import purchases spiked, the Commerce Department announced Wednesday.

March was the first time in U.S. history that a monthly deficit surpassed $100 billion. The trade deficit refers to the gap between how much America purchases from other countries versus what it sells abroad.

March also saw a record-setting increase in imports as companies seek to restore stockpiles following recent supply chain chaos.

[shadowlands1960]

'record-setting'

[who_would_fardels_bear]

If it means we’re keeping our wheat, etc. for us then that’s OK.

[Nathan _in_Arkansas]

I’m not sure our “leaders” are that smart.

[Tell It Right]

Usually the trade deficit numbers have as a huge component the oil deficit.

Not saying our Cheyna trade isn't an issue. I'm just saying the #1 way to fix the trade deficit is to drill,baby,drill and export.

[wiseprince]

Just for fun, what is the deficit with Russia in this time frame?

[shadowlands1960]

The article suggests that the deficit increase was due to retailers stocking up on imported goods after supply chain problems.

[A Navy Vet]

President Trump had the right idea...bring back manufacturing to America which was part of MAGA. IIRC, he was making some headway with his deregulation and tax incentives. There were a number of companies that were returning to the USA. Then Biteme killed his trade policies and the world shutdown needlessly due to Covid.

Good news for me looking at my new annual comprehensive blood screening - no SARS-CoV-2 Ab interp. Never been vaxxed and won't and I'm 72. I won't bore everyone again with my disinfectant protocol. Sorry to change topic.

[Tell It Right]

Agreed. But that's just the increase recently (I imagine this month). Not the main deficit driver over all this past year.

For example, suppose you've been paying $100/month for cable TV, plus $10 for Netflix, plus $10 for Hulu, plus $10 for Disney+ (a total of $130/month for TV entertainment) and you increase your Hulu subscription to the no-ads version from $10 to $15. If your wife says, "Honey, why did our entertainment expense go up by $5 this month?" the answer would be the change in the Hulu subscription. However, focusing on that one $5 increase this month doesn't change the fact that the single most important thing you can do to lower your entertainment budget is to drop the $100 cable service.

That's the way it is with the energy portion of our overall trade deficit. It may not be the part that changed the most this month (and certainly not what the MSM wants to talk about). But it's still the largest piece of the pie unless someone like Trump is in office getting us to drill and export.

[Rusty0604]

2022 : U.S. trade in goods with Russia
NOTE: All figures are in millions of U.S. dollars on a nominal basis, not seasonally adjusted unless otherwise specified. Details may not equal totals due to rounding. Table reflects only those months for which there was trade.

Month Exports Imports Balance
January 2022 396.8 1,959.4 -1,562.5
February 2022 497.5 2,577.8 -2,080.3
March 2022 101.1 2,746.3 -2,645.2
TOTAL 2022 995.4 7,283.5 -6,288.1

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c4621.html

Obviously this is backward-looking and represents one of the key drivers of Q1’s negative GDP print (net exports subtracted 3.2 percentage points from GDP, government figures showed last week).

Also of note is that the figures aren’t adjusted for inflation.

Finally, we point out that Russia’s trade surplus with US surged to 11 year highs as imports rose and exports tumbled

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/us-trade-deficit-explodes-record-high-march