U.S. Trade Deficit Hits $66 Billion, Another Record

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― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 10 November 2005 21:35 (twenty years ago)

Again, no surprise here. Hell, it's the "logical" end result when your chief strategy is to run things so far into debt that no money can be spent on any other program and gov't shuts down.

― kingfish orange creamsicle (kingfish 2.0), Thursday, 10 November 2005 22:15 (twenty years ago)

We did it!

http://www.foxnews.com/images/106207/6_22_bush_mission_banner.jpg

― giboyeux (skowly), Thursday, 10 November 2005 22:33 (twenty years ago)

Oops. I was referring more to the current budget deficit than the trade deficit per se. Different problem.

still, there was this bit at the very end of that article:

Separately, the Labor Department reported that claims for unemployment benefits rose by about 2,000, to 326,000 last week. Compared to the same week last year, claims were down by about 5,000.

And the University of Michigan reported that its consumer confidence index rose after falling for three straight months, edging up to 79.9 this month, up from 76.5 in October.

I can understand the unemployment claims going up, but why did the CCI go up?

― kingfish orange creamsicle (kingfish 2.0), Thursday, 10 November 2005 22:50 (twenty years ago)

As erectile disfunction falls, confidence rises.

― andy --, Thursday, 10 November 2005 23:19 (twenty years ago)

gas prices going down perhaps?

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 10 November 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

I can understand the unemployment claims going up, but why did the CCI go up?

Retail gasoline prices coming down, mostly. Plus the Katrina-related dive seen in September was bound to track back a little.

The trade deficit widened as much as it did because there were a lot of hurricane disruptions in the data due to port closures and things like that. Also, oil prices were very, very high, but actual unit demand for crude was lower. Furthermore aircraft orders took a hit from a strike at Boeing, which has subsequently been resolved.

All that aside, the trade deficit is still huge and a grave threat indeed to the U.S. economy's long-run stability.

― rasheed wallace (rasheed wallace), Thursday, 10 November 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

FWIW, the Michigan report is also a poll of consumer sentiment, not confidence. The confidence poll is taken monthly by a separate group, the Conference Board. Both tend to move basically in sympathy with each other, but they use different methodologies and are purporting to measure somewhat different things (general mood vs. level of good feeling).

― rasheed wallace (rasheed wallace), Thursday, 10 November 2005 23:26 (twenty years ago)

Briefing.com is always a nice way to look at economic reports

― don weiner (don weiner), Friday, 11 November 2005 02:15 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

Budget Deficit is gunna hit $400B, which everybody in the Admin blames on Katrina...except that it's gone over the mark for the last three years, too:

This is the third straight year in which the White House has summoned reporters well ahead of the official budget release to project a higher-than-anticipated deficit. In the past two years, when final deficit figures have come in at record or near-record levels, White House officials have boasted that they had made progress, since the final numbers were below estimates.
"This administration has a history of overestimating the deficit early in the year, lowering expectations, then taking credit when it comes in below forecast," said Stanley E. Collender, a federal budget expert at Financial Dynamics Business Communications. "It's not just a history. It's almost an obsession."

A CJR note on the press coverage of that fact, too.

Also, they're working on raising the debt ceiling again, aren't they?

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:59 (twenty years ago)

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