[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help] 

Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

Iran sets a world record by deporting 300,000 illegal refugees in 14 days

Brazilian Women Soccer Players (in Bikinis) Incredible Skills

Watch: Mexico City Protest Against American Ex-Pat 'Invasion' Turns Viole

Kazakhstan Just BETRAYED Russia - Takes gunpowder out of Putin’s Hands

Why CNN & Fareed Zakaria are Wrong About Iran and Trump

Something Is Going Deeply WRONG In Russia

329 Rivers in China Exceed Flood Warnings, With 75,000 Dams in Critical Condition

Command Of Russian Army 'Undermined' After 16 Of Putin's Generals Killed At War, UK Says

Rickards: Superintelligence Will Never Arrive

Which Countries Invest In The US The Most?

The History of Barbecue

‘Pathetic’: Joe Biden tells another ‘tall tale’ during rare public appearance

Lawsuit Reveals CDC Has ZERO Evidence Proving Vaccines Don't Cause Autism

Trumps DOJ Reportedly Quietly Looking Into Criminal Charges Against Election Officials

Volcanic Risk and Phreatic (Groundwater) eruptions at Campi Flegrei in Italy

Russia Upgrades AGS-17 Automatic Grenade Launcher!

They told us the chickenpox vaccine was no big deal—just a routine jab to “protect” kids from a mild childhood illness

Pentagon creates new military border zone in Arizona

For over 200 years neurological damage from vaccines has been noted and documented

The killing of cardiologist in Gaza must be Indonesia's wake-up call

Marandi: Israel Prepares Proxies for Next War with Iran?

"Hitler Survived WW2 And I Brought Proof" Norman Ohler STUNS Joe Rogan

CIA Finally Admits a Pyschological Warfare Agent from the Agency “Came into Contact” with Lee Harvey Oswald before JFK’s Assassination

CNN Stunned As Majority Of Americans Back Trump's Mass Deportation Plan

Israeli VS Palestinian Connections to the Land of Israel-Palestine

Israel Just Lost Billions - Haifa and IMEC

This Is The Income A Family Needs To Be Middle Class, By State

One Big Beautiful Bubble": Hartnett Warns US Debt Will Exceed $50 Trillion By 2032

These Are The Most Stolen Cars In Every US State

Earth Changes Summary - June 2025: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval,


Sports
See other Sports Articles

Title: U.S. Trade Deficit Hits High on Storms
Source: Washington Post
URL Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy ... /11/10/AR2005111000521_pf.html
Published: Nov 10, 2005
Author: By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
Post Date: 2005-11-10 14:20:17 by TommyTheMadArtist
Ping List: *You Gotta Be Shitting Me*     Subscribe to *You Gotta Be Shitting Me*
Keywords: Deficit, Storms, Trade
Views: 352
Comments: 3

WASHINGTON -- The trade deficit soared to a record in September as the Gulf Coast hurricanes helped push America's foreign oil bill to an all-time high. The politically sensitive deficit with China also set a record.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the deficit jumped to $66.1 billion in September, 11.4 percent higher than the $59.3 billion imbalance recorded in August. It was a far bigger increase than analysts had been expecting and reflected in part a record $23.8 billion in oil purchases as the price skyrocketed, reflecting widespread shutdowns of production facilities following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

So far this year, the deficit is running at an annual rate of $706.4 billion. This puts the country on track to far surpass the old deficit record of $617.6 billion set last year and gives critics ammunition to argue that President Bush's trade policies are not working.

In other economic news, the government reported that the number of Americans who have lost their jobs because of the string of devastating Gulf Coast hurricanes rose to 542,000 last week. Last week's increase included 15,000 applications for jobless benefits related to Katrina and Rita and 6,000 attributed to Hurricane Wilma.

The 11.4 percent increase in the deficit reflected the fact that imports jumped by 2.4 percent to a record $171.3 billion in September, driven by the higher oil bill and a big increase in imports of consumer goods such as televisions, clothing and toys.

U.S. exports actually fell by 2.6 percent to $105.2 billion in September, the biggest monthly decline in four years. However, analysts cautioned that the drop-off was heavily influenced by a strike at aircraft-maker Boeing which sharply curtailed shipments of jetliners during the month.

The deficit with China jumped by 8.9 percent during the month to a record $20.1 billion and through September is running at an annual rate approaching $200 billion, far above last year's record deficit of $162 billion, which was the highest imbalance ever recorded with a single country.

The increase of 21,000 hurricane-related jobless claims came out of a total of 326,000 new applications for jobless benefits filed last week, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week. That was a worse-than-expected showing. Analysts had been expecting overall claims to decline last week.

The soaring deficit with China has increased calls in Congress for the administration to take action against what critics complain are China's unfair trade practices such as manipulating its currency to gain trade advantages, rampant piracy of American movies and other copyrighted material and state support to the country's textile industry.

On Tuesday, the administration announced that it had reached a three-year agreement with China to limit imports of clothing and textiles, something that the U.S. industry said was desperately needed to halt a surge that began in early January and has already cost thousands of American textile jobs.

The figures for September showed that a series of "safeguard" quotas that the administration has been imposing on various categories of Chinese imports had resulted in a 5.2 percent drop in imports of Chinese clothing and textiles in September, when compared to August. However, these shipments were still up by 50.4 percent for the first nine months of this year, reflecting the surge that had occurred in earlier months before the quotas were imposed.

U.S. purchases of foreign oil rose by 4.4 percent in September with the average price for a barrel of imported crude oil hitting an all-time high of $57.32, up from a $52.65 per barrel average in August.

After Katrina struck, crude oil prices briefly topped $70 per barrel, sending gasoline pump prices over $3 per gallon for a time. However, as Gulf Coast production has come back on line, those prices have moderated although they are still well above levels of a year ago.

The increase in petroleum imports reflected a jump in price. The volume of shipments fell by 9.2 percent during the month, reflecting in part port shutdowns along the Gulf Coast because of the hurricanes.

In addition to the record deficit with China, America's trade imbalance with Canada also set a record, rising to $7.4 billion. America's deficit with the countries of South and Central America also set a record at $4.99 billion. Subscribe to *You Gotta Be Shitting Me*

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

#1. To: TommyTheMadArtist (#0)

Washington Post, you sure the state sponsored Zionist/JUDEO-Christian international terrorist's wars of aggression have nothing to do with the soaring budget deficits?

Splitends  posted on  2005-11-10   17:25:42 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Splitends (#1)

I think it has more to do with the fact that we're just shopping a lot more than we should.

So many morons, so few bullets.

TommyTheMadArtist  posted on  2005-11-10   18:32:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: TommyTheMadArtist (#2)

And so are they to the tune of a $1/2 trillion/year in military offense expenditures.

Splitends  posted on  2005-11-10   22:15:39 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest


[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help]