Dodo, US buying power is up. We are also attracting back manufacturing. Slow your roll Cocheese.
I feel like I am in “The Sixth Sense” but I just see dumb people.
Let’s be fair, Obama gets credit for this.
Re: “Dodo, US buying power is up.”
True.
Unfortunately, the U.S. Dollar Index was down 12% in 2017.
Cheap dollars mean foreign goods cost more, which increases the trade deficit.
Cheap dollars should also increase exports, but the article doesn’t break down the numbers, so I don’t know how much exports increased (if it all) in 2017.
I found the full year 2017 trade numbers...
2017 USA Total Imports - $2.9 trillion - up 6.7%
2017 USA Total Exports - $2.33 trillion - up 5.5%
Approximately 30% - 35% of USA exports are “Services.”
Approximately 60% - 65% of USA exports are “Goods.”
USA petroleum exports hit a record high in 2017, but we still had a “petroleum gap” deficit of $96 billion.
Link:
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/balance-of-trade
Don’t mind the chest heaving pearl clutchers. They get up from their fainting couches now and then to let us know the sky is falling.
It’s all part of the new “are we there yet” conservatism where dullards on our side pick an issue and DEMAND Trump fix it this damn second. Usually with some smarmy post that makes it seem like he is “neglecting” promises and with some tone that amounts to the person threating some sort of electoral consequences.
It is so obnoxious considering that most people on the right can’t even get off their duff and control their own senators, whom all could be working with Trump to make this stuff happen, instead of screwing around.