by Kenneth Thomas Most U.S. Trade Agreement Improve Trade Balance, but Effect Overwhelmed by NAFTA and China Trade The U.S. trade deficit figures heavily in the analysis of Jeff Faux’s new book, The Servant Economy. Faux, the founder of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), was one of the most important voices speaking out against NAFTA […]

by Kenneth Thomas U.S. Trade Deficit Largely Due to “Intra-Firm” Trade The vast majority of the U.S. $727 billion trade deficit in goods for 2011 is due to “intra-firm” or “related party” trade, that is, trade between two units of the same corporation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This is significant because such trade […]

Kash at The Streetlight points us to other aspects of the world, touching upon the WTO and the IMF roles in global trade and China in particular: Retaliating Against Currency Manipulation: A Primer You’ve probably heard that this week the US Congress has been addressing the issue of how China controls its exchange rate with […]

I thought that the whole point of fiscal austerity was to turn the balance of trade and capital flow within the Euro area: debtors becoming savers and capital flows out of the Periphery and into to the core. We’re seeing the outset of such a shift; but it’s probably too slow in the making. The […]

Mark Thoma at Maximum Utility has conclusions on the figures for creation of jobs and trend in trade deficits: (reposted with permission of the author) Figures on the trade balance and new claims for unemployment insurance are out this morning, and the news isn’t as good as hoped. First, initial claims increased: In the week […]

Both parties promise ‘economic growth’ in this debate as the way out of our troubles for unemployment and federal deficits. Left out of the discussion currently is the way to actually accomplish this growth in a way that delivers more specifically to voters other than some vague notion of trickle down from a ‘global free […]

Purpose of trade policy in the summary Congressional Rsearch Service paper March 24 2010 caught my attention. U.S. trade policy is at a cross-roads as the Obama Administration and the 111th Congress face a range of policy issues and challenges. The future direction of trade policy and how the issues will be addressed are unclear […]

The real trade deficit collapsed in June — plunging from -$45,992 million to -$54,136 billion ( 2005 $). I have not done the calculation, but this will generate a significant downward revision of the second quarter real GDP report. Remember, BEA does not have this data when they do the first GDP report. The plunge […]