|
|
Go back to the Trump years, when the word on The Street, nearly every time stock prices moved lower, they would blame it on the “Trade War,” which we kept noting had zero to do with the market moves because it was all talk and no action.
Bingo! The U.S. trade deficit expanded by 9.4 percent in January from December, reaching $89.7 billion, the commerce department reported.
Exports fell, while retailers rebuilt their inventories and Americans bought more foreign-made vehicles and imported more fuel.
The U.S. imported 1.2 percent more overall for the month, with industrial supplies and capital goods accounting for a large share of the gain.
Exports sank 1.7 percent as U.S. pharmaceutical firms shipped fewer doses of COVID vaccines and demand for travel declined.
The impact of losing the $29.7 billion worth of imports from Russia the U.S. bought last year is not yet known.
Oil made up 60 percent of those imports; most of the rest was in fertilizers, iron, precious metals, seafood, and steel.
Behind South Africa, Russia was the U.S.’s second-largest source of palladium, a key element in vehicles’ catalytic converters.
TREND FORECAST: The United States, as a service sector society, will continue to shed its middle class as it buys more, makes less and employs its people in non-productive employment… such as warehouse workers, product deliverers, retail clerks, fast-food workers, etc.
For example, some 30 percent of Germany’s jobs and output are tied to overseas demand for its products and services, which is some four times the share in the United States. Indeed, exports account for only about 11.5 percent of America’s Gross Domestic product.