U.S. Trade Deficit Shrank Unexpectedly in August

Don't worry Richard they will be moving to India or somewhere else soon anyway because the businesses still standing in the USA will be taxed right out the door. It's because we are such bad people, at least that's what our President said and he got an award for it you know so it must be true>

If no one buys anything from overseas it will cost us triple because it will have to be built at union scale. The little people were making us some cool stuff really cheap. I'm gonna miss that.

The unions both government and private and of course the King. A loyal subject should know that garry402. garry402 will probably be what they tattoo on your forehead when they put you in a concentration camp for speaking out against the King.

Pete
2:09PM Oct 9th 2009
WHAT SPIN!!

The reason the trade deficit is down is because the US dollar is plummeting in value against other world currencies. An argument can be made for the reasons our dollar is plummeting in value is the HUGE DEBT and DEFICT SPENDING Obama is racking up. This deficit spending, HUGE government entitlement programs, printing money at record rates has historically led to MASSIVE INFLATION and a slowing economy.
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WOW - WHEN DID YOU COME OUT OF THE COMA YOU FELL INTO IN 1999?

I have some bad news - we had a President from 2001 till 2009 who utterly DEVASTATED our economy! He inherited a SURPLUS and turned it into a FIVE TRILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT in just a few years! He also managed to drive down the value of the US Dollar to such a level that gasoline, which was $2 a gallon when he became President ended up costing almost 5$..FIVE BUCKS FOR A GALLON OF GAS!!!

Honestly, by being in a coma for 9 years you were LUCKY!! We had to put up with lies, wars, tortured prsioners, opened up secret prison camps, more lies, spin, a President who broke FEMA, made every thing worse for everybody but the very, very rich, who bankers being begged to do away with fiscal restraints and give everyone a mortgage -it was outrageous. Then we bailed out the bankers and Wall Street with taxpayer money.

But things are getting better now and the world respects us again - we've even managed to kill a bunch of terrorists.

Here - this will really wake you up:

When George W. Bush took office, business was booming, the power of the dollar allowed us to buy gasoline at $2 a gallon. The government had its largest surplus in history — 5 trillion dollar surplus projected. Back then, the national deficit was lowering, which strengthened the dollar every day.

A lower deficit means a stronger dollar. As an illustration, if you go out and borrow a lot of money, your credit score lowers; in the future your money isn’t worth as much. You can’t just say, “I promise I’ll pay you back,” because people see that you’re not good for your money. But if you have no debt, then your credit score is higher, and you can buy anything you want. The same thing goes for the national debt. If the country has no debt, then the dollar is extremely strong.

However, since America’s national debt is so astronomical (ie, there are less stars in our galaxy than our national debt), value of the dollar drops. This means that foreign-bought commodities costs a lot more even if their value doesn’t change. This means that if we increase our deficit, then the price of food, water, gasoline, cars, electricity goes up; everything costs more even though the value doesn’t change.

So back to Bush. When he entered office, America was blessed with having the largest budget surplus in history. Then Bush gave away the surplus in tax cuts. Every American received a check for a few hundred dollars.

Meanwhile, Bush increased spending. The armed forces had extraordinary spending increases, and huge government restructuring took place. That isn’t inherently bad, but the surplus that would have paid for it was already given away.

Because there was no longer any excess money, other programs began to suffer. Public education was one of the hardest hit. Public college tuition nearly doubled. (My tuition at a public university) went from $2000 a semester to $4000 a semester). Already, the effects of my $300 the surplus check were null.

States also ran out of federal funding, which made them turn to other means of income. Local taxes were immediately raised: Food taxes, cigarette taxes, property taxes and gasoline taxes were raised. Even luxury taxes were raised. But with Bush spending out of control, there were still huge gaps in money for state spending, like police enforcement. The result is that the police increased their ticket giving as a last-ditch effort to stay afloat. 1,2, 3, 4 (That $100 ticket and $500 insurance premium increase you got…thank your $300 surplus check for it)

With the cost of living going up dramatically, Bush did the absolute worst thing imaginable.

When the Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda attacked America on September 11th, 2001, Bush fabricated an enemy and convinced America to attack Iraq instead. This war increased deficit spending on a magnitude that America’s never conceived. Bush continually broke his own records as he spent more and more money.

Value of the dollar droppingIn 2004 he broke records with a $445 billion deficit. (By 2008, he had broken his own record with a deficit of $455 billion)

Because of this, over the past 8 years, the value of the dollar has dropped at a free fall. Just by looking at the value of the Dollar vs Euro over the past 8 years we can see how weak the U.S. currency has gotten. The Euro has doubled it’s strength against the dollar. (See chart) Even the Yen has made significant gains against the dollar.

What happens next may take at least a highschool education to grasp, so I understand if it’s too much for the Bush supporters to understand. (Note: a Bush supporter is different than a true conservative, for whom I have a lot of respect). With the value of the dollar dropping so rapidly, and government spending going up, America teeters dangerously close to collapsing into hyperinflation. (1, 2, 3). But even if we do not get to the dreaded state of hyperinflation, we still have to deal with skyrocketing commodity costs.

Commodity costs rising at this rate means that worker’s pay cannot keep up. Couple that with the fact that the lower value of the dollar is already pumping up the cost of goods, a huge majority of people can no longer pay for the high cost of living. This leads to a number of things: people can no longer afford their mortgages, people can no longer afford luxuries like new cars or new computers or…you name it, people can’t afford it. When people don’t buy a company’s products, that company loses income, which leads to job cuts. When people lose their jobs, the cycle repeats itself: people spend less, companies cut jobs, companies raise prices, and the resulting people can no longer afford things (i.e., mortgages). Millions of homes then foreclose, which leaves banks stuck with the debt. But the banks don’t have this money, because they were expecting people to pay off their mortgages. So then the banks cannot produce liquid money, which is what lead to the recent stock market crash.

This is why I blame Bush for our current economic problems.

Remember, we had a 1.1 trillion dollar projected surplus when Bush took office.

http://officeofstrategicinfluence.com/blog2/208

Dear Rheinhart,

Great article. Too bad the people you wrote it for mostly can't read. The most amazing thing I have witnessed over the last 8 years is the inability of the Far Rightwing to grasp just how badly Bush blew it. They think if they get 2 inches from your face and yell lies, that America will fold and say " Gee whizickers, Georgie Boy was just the "bestest" President ever"

Reinhart, I don't know what country you lived in or were a part of during the Bush years, but it isn't the same one I lived in. Bush inherited a little thing called 9-11. You haven't witnessed deficit spending yet. Barry has just gotten started trying to bankrupt the country he hates. The rest of your argument is complete bull$hit. Bush and McCain tried to reign in Freddie and Fannie in 04, Maxine and Barney Frank put an end to that.

Fox News, the most biased news source on television, wants you to send them an email if you see any examples of media bias. So if you see anything on Fox News that’s biased, can report it at newswatch@foxnews.com.

Thank you.

Exactly.

And after this is put through the spin cycle it comes out as:

"Obama has fixed the economy!"

Beware of this year's 4th quarter. You ain't seen nothing yet.

And after that is put through the spin cycle it'll be:

"Bush ruined the economy and the entire country."