8:30am 04/12/05 U.S. Feb. trade gap widens to largest level on record
By Greg Robb WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. trade deficit widened by 4.3% in February to a record $61.0 billion, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The trade deficit was above the consensus forecast of Wall Street economists of a deficit of $58.5. billion. Imports rose 1.6 percent, while exports were essentially flat. The U.S. trade deficit with China widened to $13.9 billion in February compared with $8.3 billion in the same month last year. In February, imports of textiles from China rose 9.8% to $2.08 billion from the previous month. In the first two months of the year, Chinese textile imports are up 62.4% from the same period in 2004.
...so $61B x (31/28) = $67.5 billion ('seasonally adjusted'). The rate of increase is currently hyperbolic. Guess it won't stop until the US is sucking up 100% of global savings. Then what? Forced loans at gunpoint, a la the Spanish Hapsburgs and their Genoese creditors? That ruined the Genoese for good; the Dutch though otherwise. The North American state, destroying global capitalist finance. That's something the New Bretton Woods II / Foreign Affairs crowd haven't factored into their 'long term sustainability analysis'.