Posted on 07/06/2018 4:08:12 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
The United States trade deficit dropped in May to the lowest level in 19 months as exports rose to a record level.
The Department of Commerce announced the May trade deficit — the difference between what America sells and what it buys in foreign markets — decreased 6.6 percent to $43.1 billion — the smallest imbalance since October 2016.
Exports climbed 1.9 percent to a record $215.3 billion. Imports were up a smaller 0.4 percent to $258.4 billion.
The Trump administration followed through with imposing tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese products on Friday. China retaliated in kind, starting what Beijing described as the “biggest trade war in economic history.”
American employers kept up a strong hiring pace in June by adding 213,000 jobs in a sign of confidence of President Donald Trump’s economic policies.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
That’s my philosophy too. I appreciate that Trump is so concerned about the trade deficit. I do wish that the U.S. would adopt an industrial policy. We need to encourage industrial growth in the U.S.
There are many reasons for the trade deficit. The dollar being so high in value is one reason with the dollar being 90% of global reserve currency and the petrodollar being dominant. The U.S. government policy has been to keep the dollar high. It makes our products higher in price in many places. Also not helping is the fact that to get to the other rich markets like Europe, East Asia, and Australia, we have to ship across huge oceans, adding to shipping costs. Arguably the biggest reason for the deficit is that so few American companies actually export. Only a very small percentage of American companies actually do export. Astonishgly, one company-Boeing-is responsible for 25% of the value of U.S. exports. Encouraging more companies and businesses to export should be national policy. If we could just increase the number of companies exporting by a mere 10%, the deficit would vanish.
Thanks.
It’s all Trump’s fault!
hahaha
The largest transfer of wealth in all of human history.
For years I bought into and accepted the— as it turns out— lie that American manufacturing has gone away, so much so that it could be said that there was statistically none left. Of course, I saw items labelled “Made in USA” now and then, but I thought them outliers and not to be taken as statistically significant.
I was accepting of this and spoke to friends of a “post-industrial” service, financial, and scientific economy in which a small amount of innovative product would be made and immediately licensed for foreign production and import.
Then about five years ago I suffered a disruption in my personal economy. A gentleman whose role is to guide veterans to job opportunities suggested I go into manufacturing. I was dubious for the reasons stated above, but ended up taking a course in machining (manual and CNC) and have been gainfully employed as skilled labor making parts that are assembled into American products such as furniture, cars, trucks, motorcycles, and heavy equipment.
This began, as I said, about five years ago, shortly after the Obama Regurgitation— er, Re-Election. I presently see increases and expansions in the field.
I only see positives in the Administration’s attitude toward tariffs, especially as I believe that our raising of tariffs is not intended to be the end result, but rather a goad to other nations to lower theirs. Wasn’t there a news story about European automakers asking the EU to lower tariffs on US cars, so that we would bring ours back down?
Oh my.. at my location it’s Sunday already. Good night, folks!
This is certainly good news. However, my stock market guru is concerned that as the price of producing goods in the US rises due to increased prices of raw materials favorable balance of trade will definitely be reduced and possibly even turn negative. Any manufacturers out there with opinions on this???
We buy $34 billion from the Red Chinese, but they don’t come close to buying equal from us. Beside, when did everyone stop calling Red China, Red China? They have not stopped being Red. I assume it is a LIBERAL media thing.
The most important commodity, overall, is the widely used family of hydrocarbon fuels. The cost of hydrocarbon fuels has a direct impact on the entire process, each step of the process, from travel to sites where goods can be purchased (or if ordered online, the delivery vehicles), to the light bill in the stores, to the transportation systems used to move the goods to the retailers and wholesalers, to process the parts or raw materials into finished goods or into parts, and transport and extract or otherwise produce (agriculture for example) the goods.
It’s a win...
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