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Home Front Economy

U.S. Trade Gap Narrowed in September

2007-11-09

Falling Dollar Spurs Foreigners to Buy American, Pushing Exports to Record Level

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. trade deficit fell to the lowest level in 28 months as a falling dollar spurred U.S. exports to an all-time high. The deficit with China jumped to the second highest level on record as imports of toys and other goods surged despite a rash of safety recalls. The Commerce Department said Friday that the deficit for September dipped by 0.6 percent from the previous month -- to $56.5 billion. That was the narrowest trade imbalance since May 2005 and took economists by surprise. They had been forecasting the deficit would rise.

The improvement came from a 1.1 percent jump in U.S. exports, which climbed to a record $140.1 billion. The dollars' decline against many major currencies has made U.S. goods cheaper and more competitive in foreign markets. For September, sales of American-made cars, computers and farm products including corn, cotton, wheat and soybeans were all up.

Posted by:Delphi

#13 Marines:
50% constructive
50% destructive
whatever it takes

/is that what you mean, Pappy?

Posted by: trailing wife 2007-11-09 22:41

#12 "For those of us holding productive employment--non-government"

Okay, so what they do might not be considered 'productive' - I'd still like you to tell that to my Marines. }:)>

(fwiw, I bookmarked yer site)

Posted by: Pappy 2007-11-09 22:12

#11 Lol.

35-17 ouch.

Anyway, from what I've heard about San Diego, your city isn't currently being overwhelmed by loonies, although there are plenty in the area.

http://www.darleenclick.com/weblog/archives/2005/03/live_from_san_d.html

Seriously, there are professionals in most transportation agencies. There have to be. The risks are just too great.

ODOT used to be the paridigm of efficiency in this country. A trip from coast to coast brought that reality home quickly. Some states simply did not put money into infrastructure.

Since 1972, when Neil Goldschmidt was elected mayor of Portland, common sense came to an end.

Plans had been drawn up for our current transportation needs by one of the greatest engineers in America, Robert Moses. Had they been built, Oregon would have remained an example of how roads work. Instead, we have a cluttered relic, in a town where cluttered relics are revered.

Today the ODT is peopled by drones with a Vision. A Vision supplied by their political betters. When Glenn Jackson was alive, he would have eaten these animals for lunch.

Oregon, a state without a backbone.

Good luck for continued Reason in SanGo.

Posted by: OregonGuy 2007-11-09 19:08

#10 I'm as southwest as you can get in the continental US - does that help? Oh, and I'm commenting from home - vacation day - not from work :-)

Posted by: Frank G 2007-11-09 16:57

#9 My roomie from college is an administrator for the federal highway administration located in a top twenty metro. Won't say where. Though Darrell gets eerily close.

So, I will grant that at least a part of what you are doing could be headered productive. But, you give no indication of your location. Were you to be employed in the city of Portland, Oregon, one would suggest that the amount of productive versus un-productive time would concommitantly suffer. Alas.

If you are, however, employed by such an august body as unencumbered by the political frippery of a Portland, you may be productively employed. I just can't say. I can hope. Just can't say. Wouldn't be prudent.

Thanks for the vist. Thanks for the comment. Your nit, having been fully picked now needs a bandage. Find some nice lady to do it. And get the kiss. Oh, and here's your umbrage. You may need it. It's raining.

Posted by: OregonGuy 2007-11-09 16:46

#8 LOL - no, although "my" football team got their asses handed to them there last weekend

Posted by: Frank G 2007-11-09 16:22

#7 PS -- Frank G, the bridge builder, is not in the "large City" of Minneapolis.

Posted by: Darrell 2007-11-09 16:17

#6 good article, OG, but I have a personal nit to pick with this: "For those of us holding productive employment--non-government"

In my case, I am an infrastructure project manager/engineer for a large City - we build (with tax dollars, yes) roads and bridges for the citizens to use. I don't consider that non-productive, especially inasmuch as we usually employ outside (private) firms to do the critical designs (cheaper and more efficient than keeping a full-time bridge design staff on the gov't employ..) as well as employing private contractors to build, at the lowest responsible bid prices.

I take umbrage at the blanket smear. :-)

Posted by: Frank G 2007-11-09 16:13

#5 Nicely done, OregonGuy.

Posted by: Darrell 2007-11-09 15:50

#4 My thoughts here. Draw your own conclusions. Feel free to bash.

Posted by: OregonGuy 2007-11-09 15:29

#3 Up here at the WA / Canadian border, the Canadians are flocking across to buy goods in such numbers that Canadian merchants have started selling their products at the (cheaper) US prices, this includes big ticket items like cars.

Posted by: USN,Ret. 2007-11-09 14:46

#2 I guess my question should be restated.

What type of statistic WOULD count things like tourism dollars?

I don't readily see how that could be counted accurately, but that doesn't mean our national hoard of Experts on such matters can't.

Posted by: eLarson 2007-11-09 11:41

#1 Does tourism count, or only hard goods?

I ask because it seemed a good 30% of the people my wife and I met were from the UK. At least another 10% were from Brazil.

Posted by: eLarson 2007-11-09 10:06

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