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Log onto Facebook. Before you know it, you’ll see ads from Temu or Wish, pitching cheap products. Or open your old email account, the one that you’ve had for years, so it gets the most spam. Every other message is an offer from some unknown store, selling the sort of thing in which a person like you just might be interested. Or log onto Amazon and look for something, anything at all. Twenty percent of the hits, maybe more, will be “sponsored” items, often from a brand you’ve never heard of. Of course, you can shut down the internet, close...

In an election year, candidates from both sides will generally declare that we need more domestic manufacturing, and they promise to make it happen. Different sides will propose different ways to accomplish it. Republicans will call for lower tax rates and lighter regulations; Democrats will call for open borders and higher punitive tariffs. Each side hates the other’s methods; nothing gets done. Does this really matter? There are economists, investment advisors, even politicians out there, who will say it doesn’t matter. They will say we need business, of course; but as long as there are transactions happening, that’s economic growth....

I don’t often take advantage of Black Friday deals, but I needed a set of tires, so I steeled myself for battle, and entered the hunt. The one thing most shops don’t advertise online is the country of origin (I wonder why), so I handled that part by phone. I called the shop, identified the deal I was looking for, and asked them to check the country of manufacture (as far as I’m concerned, USA would be nice, but I don’t want tires made in China). He put me on hold while he looked at the tire, and returned with...

“Money is Fungible.” We may disagree about all sorts of things in economics, but not this one. It’s one of the fundamentals. If you have a thousand dollars, you can buy something that costs $1000, or you can buy a hundred things that cost $10 each, or a thousand things that cost $1 each — or you can put your $1000 together with other money you already have, to buy something that costs more. This is so obvious it doesn’t seem worth bothering to mention, right? But it is necessary to delve into this issue, much more seriously than we...

Ask a buyer why his company imports goods from Mainland China, and he will have good reasons. Plenty of good reasons. China has a very well-developed supply chain; your vendors can get finished goods made there efficiently, with locally sourced components, because they make all the components nearby too. You can find huge Chinese factories that are conveniently located, close to the seaports, close to the airports. You can buy finished goods made a few miles from the port, or you can buy components with which to make finished goods here in the USA, as so many other manufacturers have...

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

Tonight, the Fed is still partying with your currency like this is the richest country in the worldThere's probably no institution in American life that has more effect on how you live, but that we talk about less than the Federal Reserve. People don't care to talk about the Federal Reserve because it seems very complex and a lot of what it does is in fact complex. Unless you have a grounding in monetary policy, it's hard to know exactly what's going on. But the basics aren't that complicated, actually, and here are a few of them. The Federal Reserve...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit rose in August to the highest level in 14 years.</p> <p>The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the gap between the goods and services the United States sells and what it buys abroad climbed 5.9% in August to $67.1 billion, highest since August 2006. Exports rose 2.2% to $171.9 billion on a surge in shipments of soybeans, but imports rose more — up 3.2% to $239 billion — led by purchases of crude oil, cars and auto parts.</p>

The U.S. trade deficit widened by almost 12% in March as the coronavirus pandemic grounded international flights, froze the global tourism industry and caused massive disruptions in the exchange of goods such as new cars and iPhones. Imports fell 6.2%, but U.S. exports tumbled an even deeper 9.6% to cause the trade gap to rise. It’s the biggest monthly decline in exports ever recorded. The U.S. deficit rose to $44.4 billion in March from $39.8 billion in February, the government said Tuesday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a $44.2 billion shortfall. Exports fell to $187.7 billion in March from...

Since 1985, the first year for which the Census Bureau has posted this nation's bilateral merchandise trade deficits on its website, the United States has accumulated $5.5 trillion in trade deficits with China. No other nation comes close. In 2019, America's seven top trading partners -- when measured by the total dollar value of the bilateral trade in goods -- were Mexico ($614.5 billion), Canada ($612.4 billion), China ($558.9 billion), Japan ($218.3 billion), Germany ($187.8 billion), South Korea ($134.4 billion) and the United Kingdom ($132.3 billion). By far, however, the least balanced relationship -- both last year and in recent...

The annual 2019 trade figures for the United States came out last week, heralding some encouraging news. America’s enormous international trade deficit actually declined slightly from 2018. This was the first decrease in six years, with the deficit in goods and services dropping 1.7%, to $616.8 billion. Better yet, America’s bilateral trade deficit with China fell for the first time in four years, dropping a hefty 17.6%, to $345.6 billion. These are promising numbers and they show that tariffs on Chinese products are successfully moving the needle on U.S. trade flows. In fact, America’s 2019 imports from China actually fell...

The numbers: The trade deficit fell sharply in November for the second month in a row and sank to the lowest level in three years, reflecting a decline in Chinese imports and the reemergence of the U.S. as an energy superpower. The trade gap dropped 8.2% to $43.1 billion in November, the government said Tuesday, basically matching the MarketWatch forecast. It’s the smallest deficit since October 2016.Most of the decline recently has been tied to a shrinking deficit with China, whose imports have fallen in the face off stiff U.S. tariffs. Surging U.S. oil exports were another contributor.If the gap...

The U.S. trade deficit declined in July, including the gap with China that has been the focus of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the gap between the goods and services the U.S. buys and what it sells abroad fell 2.7% to $54 billion in July from June. Exports rose 0.6% to $207.4 billion, while imports ticked down 0.1% to $261.4 billion. Compared to a year ago, the average trade gap has increased $7 billion. Trade has become a sensitive topic for the global economy as the United States has escalated a tariff war with China....

President Trump on Thursday threatened China Opens a New Window. with possible tariffs on “at least” another $300 billion worth of goods, escalating tensions in the trade war Opens a New Window. between the two countries as negotiations drag on. Trump, before heading to France for D-Day commemorations, told reporters that “a lot of interesting things are happening” during talks with China, but did not provide further details. The countries have been stuck at a trade standoff which escalated last month when Trump increased tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports to 25 percent. “Our talks with China, a...

The US economy surged “unexpectedly” in the first quarter of 2019 to 3.2% growth. Economists predicted a 2.5% growth. Jack Posobiec ✝️ ✔ @JackPosobiec 🔥 Piers Morgan ✔ @piersmorgan BREAKING: US first-quarter GDP rockets by 3.2%, vs 2.5% expected growth. Brace yourselves Trump-haters, if the economy keeps doing so well, President @realDonaldTrump will be almost unstoppable in 2020. 277 9:11 AM - Apr 26, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 113 people are talking about this This won’t make many headlines… The US economy was boosted by a SHRINKING trade gap. Via the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. goods and services deficit with its global trading partners fell to $49.4 billion in February, its lowest level since June 2018 and well below estimates, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected the U.S. trade deficit in February to increase to $53.8 billion from $51.1 billion in January. The decline was due in large part to a 28.2 percent decrease in its goods deficit with China as exports to the nation surged. Exports to China rose $1.6 billion to $9.2 billion while imports fell $1.5 billion to $39.3 billion. That brought the total deficit...

The U.S. trade deficit fell for the second straight month in February, and the politically sensitive deficit in the trade of goods with China narrowed. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the gap between the goods and services that the United States sells and what it buys from the rest of the world dropped 3.4% to $49.4 billion in February, the lowest since June. The deficit had slid 14.6% in January. Exports climbed 1.1% to $209.7 billion on a surge in shipments of civilian aircraft, passenger cars and medicine. Imports rose 0.2% to $259.1 billion. The goods deficit with China...

The U.S. trade deficit tumbled nearly 15 percent in January as imports fell and exports rose. Shipments of American goods to China skidded to the lowest level in more than eight years as the world’s two biggest economies remained locked in a trade war. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the gap between the goods and services that the United States sells and what it buys from other countries dropped by 14.6 percent to $51.1 billion in January from $59.9 billion in December. Exports rose 0.9 percent to $207.3 billion, and imports dropped 2.6 percent to $258.5 billion. The deficit...

Headline: CEO: POTUS Trump’s tariffs like ‘gun to the head’ of China, forcing Beijing to negotiate or suffer MASSIVE recession and unrestThe CEO of a U.S.-based global investment firm said Tuesday that POTUS Donald Trump’s tariff regime against China is having the desired effect of both slowing Beijing’s economy while “holding a gun to the head” of a county that is used to enormous economic growth. On Monday, the Chinese government announced in response to its slowest economic growth since 1990 that it was willing to spend as much as $1 trillion to close the yawning trade deficit with the...

Not that long ago, China’s economy was seen as a juggernaut that would soon overtake America’s to become the world’s largest. “Made in China 2025,” the Chinese government’s blueprint to take over manufacturing, was seen as an existential threat to U.S. technological leadership. Speculation had the Chinese yuan replacing the United States dollar as the world’s reserve currency. What a difference a trade war makes. No one marvels at the Chinese economy today. Car sales in China, the world’s largest car market, plummeted by 19 per cent in December, capping a six-per-cent decline in sales for the 2018 year, the...