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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / I Am Curious

I Am Curious

by John Cole|  April 14, 200411:29 am| 14 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics

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How are the usual suspects going to tell me this is bad news:

The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in February as a combination of the weak U.S. dollar and stronger economic growth propelled both exports and imports to record levels, a government report showed on Wednesday.

The February trade gap totaled $42.1 billion, down more than 3 percent from January and slightly below analysts’ pre-report expectations of $42.5 billion.

U.S. exports leapt four percent — the highest monthly increase since October 1996 — to a record $92.4 billion, while imports rose 1.6 percent to a record $134.5 billion.

The politically sensitive trade gap with China fell nearly 28 percent in February as imports from that country slipped to $11.3 billion, the lowest level in nearly a year, and exports to China rose 17 percent to $3.0 billion.

The lower dollar appeared to help all categories of exports, as shipments of industrial supplies and materials and autos and auto parts both set records. Exports of consumer goods were only slightly below the record set in November and exports of capital goods, such as aircraft and industrial machines, were the highest since May 2001.

Exports of services, which include travel, also set a record.

Meanwhile, the surging U.S. economy sucked in record agricultural and industrial imports, while auto and auto parts imports had their second best showing.

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Reader Interactions

14Comments

  1. 1.

    capt joe

    April 14, 2004 at 12:11 pm

    off course it’s bad news. Bad news for Atrios, Hesiod, Willis, KoS, Pandagon and the DNC. ;)

  2. 2.

    Jane

    April 14, 2004 at 1:56 pm

    Serious question, because I’m no economist: if the US economy is so strong, why is the Euro so strong and why is the Canadian dollar projected to rise to .86 within the next 18 months?

  3. 3.

    Dean

    April 14, 2004 at 4:09 pm

    Serious answer:

    First, it is not necessarily a zero-sum game. A strong US economy, in fact, is likely to benefit Canada, since there is so much cross-linkage between the two economies.

    As for the euro, that can be traced to a number of factors, including fears of US inflation (which tends to weaken a currency); concerns about the US trade deficit and how WAshington will finance said economies, and (iirc) higher European interest rates, which means that people will go about putting their holdings in euros, rather than yen (which has REALLY low interest rates) or dollars (which has low interest rates at the moment).

    But then, I’m no economist, either.

  4. 4.

    Kimmitt

    April 14, 2004 at 5:42 pm

    Serious answer: The economy is not particularly strong; “surging” is a silly way to describe it.

  5. 5.

    Ricky

    April 14, 2004 at 6:17 pm

    ***The economy is not particularly strong;****

    And the economy on the planet that is stronger is ___________?

  6. 6.

    Max

    April 14, 2004 at 9:39 pm

    There’s no way the move down is bad news (though the trade deficit is still very large). Who said it was? Did you run out of things to criticize that someone actually said? You need to stop in at my site and get some fresh material.

  7. 7.

    poormedicalstudent

    April 14, 2004 at 11:18 pm

    china probably is running a stronger economy at the moment, but that tends to happen when a communist regime with over 1 billion inhabitants turns to capitalism.

    considering the huge cloud the US economy fell off after the dot.com run up, we’re doing just fine.

  8. 8.

    Kimmitt

    April 15, 2004 at 5:11 am

    “And the economy on the planet that is stronger is ___________?”

    How is that relevant? Unless you’re Chinese (or Canadian), these haven’t been a very good past couple of years.

  9. 9.

    Slartibartfast

    April 15, 2004 at 7:19 am

    While we’re blaming Bush, my shrubs are looking a little unhealthy this year. Damn that Bush to hell.

  10. 10.

    Ricky

    April 15, 2004 at 1:53 pm

    How is that relevant?

    You realize that the economy doesn’t exist in a vacuum, right?

    The entire WORLD had a downturn in the late 90’s/’00. Our numbers are looking good and we’re the greatest economy in the world right now.

  11. 11.

    S.W. Anderson

    April 15, 2004 at 2:14 pm

    I’ll tell you how it’s bad news: We’re still running a huge trade deficit on top of well over a decade of an unbroken string of huge trade deficits. The damage is cumulative.

    Here’s what this one-month snippet of less-bad news really means. If you’re in a leaking rowboat that’s sinking, bailing as fast a you can with a teacup, and somebody hands you a cup that’s 20 percent larger, you’d still better know how to swim.

  12. 12.

    Kimmitt

    April 16, 2004 at 3:28 am

    “The entire WORLD had a downturn in the late 90’s/’00. Our numbers are looking good and we’re the greatest economy in the world right now.”

    Our numbers are looking oddly mixed, and I don’t really worry about who the best in the world is, I worry about how we’re doing.

  13. 13.

    Ricky

    April 16, 2004 at 10:17 am

    We’re doing great.
    Which is why you’re having to try to spin it so that we’re really not doing all that well. The 30% gain in the DOW last year by itself is all that’s necessary.

    I can go to dnc.org to get their talking points…

  14. 14.

    Kimmitt

    April 18, 2004 at 1:02 pm

    And just think! Soon it may be up to the inflation-adjusted levels it enjoyed at the beginning of Bush’s term in office!

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