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US trade deficit widens by the most in nearly 34 years in November
- actionfromafar 9mo agoImpossible to foresee. The transition from putting together advanced things from imported goods, into a textile and coal economy, was supposed to go much faster! The only solution is to swap out leadership of Atlanta FED. That way, we can have more positive reports.
- delaminator 9mo agoJan - US trade deficit sinks as tariffs take a bite. Jan - October Trade Deficit Declines on Higher Exports, Lower Imports Nov - US trade deficit widens by the most in nearly 34 years in November
- daxfohl 9mo agoSaw that too. It says the October blip was due to a one-time movement of gold. (IDK what that implies economically, just pointing it out).
- blibble 9mo agoas a non-USian, I've been doing my part to increase the US trade deficit with my country in the last year I've stopped buying any product from american companies if there is another viable supplier, even if it costs more heinz, coca-cola, five guys, goodyear (I needed new tyres), aws/gcp, lays, mars, ... all removed entirely
- Insanity 9mo agoLooking at what you’re cutting, you might also be living healthier too! Although these food products are often regionalized.
- blibble 9mo agoyes it seems to be win win, like just completely giving up soft drinks I hadn't realised quite how many "UK" brands were owned by US conglomerates a scarily high percentage
- DataDive 9mo agoNone of these products would be made in the US, though ... and none would affect trade imbalance ... so the net effect might only be to increase inefficiency in your own country
- whynotmaybe 9mo agoHow would investing in locally produced stuff increase inefficiency ?
- janderson215 9mo agoLack of scale or expertise (competitive advantage).
- Arnt 9mo agoIf you pay someone 3x for work/service/product, x is the price and 2x is what you pay to encourage them to make/do the things instead of the people who could/would do it for x. However, you're not paying 3x. I assume you're not really paying anything notably higher than x, right? So the encouragement is nearly zero.
- blibble 9mo agohow much do you think of my £1 can of coke stays in the UK? maybe a quarter? the rest will be a "licensing fee", which goes straight to Atlanta, Georgia (well, now it doesn't)
- dylan604 9mo agoAre cans of coke only £1? The dollar is really weaker than I thought
- nebula8804 9mo agoIts just sugar water.
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- slibhb 9mo ago[flagged]
- piva00 9mo agoSo enlighthen them instead of going the route of snarky quips, make it more interesting if you feel they are that illiterate :)
- mothballed 9mo agoOK so you import less American stuff. While still wanting to export the stuff you made to America. So now you're tied up to Trump even more than before. Because you either traded your goods for US investments, or just pieces of paper that only continue to be worth something insofar as the US doesn't bungle their economic and geopolitical policies. Because those are the primary alternatives to settling the trade by getting goods/services back. Why wouldn't you want to cash out and actually get stuff back from the US for the stuff you make for them, if you think the US is headed south? It's not like you're exporting to the US as a charity.
- blibble 9mo agoafter the threats of invasion: as far as I'm concerned the relationship is dead to hell with the economic consequences as a brit, I wouldn't be buying German products in 1939 either
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- stickfigure 9mo agoTo be fair, this is more like 1932.
- watwut 9mo agoThis makes zero sense.
- mothballed 9mo agoHow does it not make sense? When you export things to other countries you expect something back in return of equal value, unless you're just doing it for charity. On a world stage the US imports more than it exports. Obviously all the countries not choosing to settle it by balancing the imports with equally valued exports are still not just donating that difference away, so it must be going somewhere. What did you think that must be? The only option is they must have kept that capital in the US if they didn't export the balance of their trade back out. Kept it in the US because for whatever reason they decided to invest it there rather than get goods/services in immediate exchange or invest in their own country. By increasing the trade deficit you're literally going stronger in on investing in what America is doing.
- nozzlegear 9mo ago[flagged]
- TimorousBestie 9mo agoThe typical demonym is inaccurate. It is more or less “USian” in some other languages, and no one raises an eyebrow. 美国人, 米国人, etc.
- sfmike 9mo agowhats a rice country person?
- khuey 9mo ago"American" in Japanese
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- khuey 9mo ago> It is more or less “USian” in some other languages, and no one raises an eyebrow. 美国人, 米国人, etc. Given that both of those examples come from phonetics for America I don't think that proves what you think it does. It's not 合众国人 ...
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- Macha 9mo agoアメリカ人 is significantly more common than 米国人
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- ajross 9mo ago
- ericmay 9mo agoI've been doing the same, but focusing on American-made products first, the more local the better and even if they're 5x as much, and then moving down the line to western products and only reluctantly buying products from adversarial countries. Supporting local businesses and moving away from globalization, which you also seem to support, is a good move for everyone. Generally the framework is: Buy local/shop at neighborhood businesses preferably selling American-made products or at least western products. When traveling we try to do the same in the country we are located in, but obviously not perfect about it. Buy American generally, including online retailers. The smaller and more local the producer the better. Try and identify American companies that are trying to source from good/ethical suppliers like Patagonia, and avoiding Chinese-owned ones (Arteryx RIP). Buy western - so that's your silk ties from Italy (something like E.& G. Cappelli), maybe French wine, you get the picture. My tires are Michelin and they are fantastic. I understand that the people on the Internet from Europe are really mad at the US (most folks generally don't care at all) but I'm not holding that against them. Same for Canada of course. Reluctantly purchase computers/phones and such made in China simply because there's no alternative. And so forth. Awful products (Five Guys, Lays chips, &c.) are generally avoided even if they're American. Same applies globally. There's no hard and fast rule here for me, but those are some of the general considerations. OP if you like Five Guys style you should try making at home. A great burger isn't too hard to pull off for MUCH cheaper! The article seems reactionary. Imports increasing, for example, maybe be due to temporary (or even permanent!) purchases from ex-US suppliers for things like increasing manufacturing capacity here in America. Obviously the effects and reconfiguration of the global economy isn't going to happen overnight. Mainstream economists have broadly always said that the trade deficit is a good thing for the United States (I can't tell you the number of NPR and Planet Money podcasts with experts I've listened to that have said as much, and also thank you, OP) because it means we're consuming more and receiving more investment and we're trading worthless dollars for the consumption of goods. If you also aligned with the mainstream economics view that tariffs are bad, you'd likely look at an increasing trade deficit with tariffs in place as a very good outcome at least in some respects.
- blibble 9mo ago> Mainstream economists have broadly always said that the trade deficit is a good thing for the United States yes, this is the traditional position but the underlying assumption is that USD remains the world reserve currency and there's now an entire western hemisphere no longer interested in maintaining that
- seanmcdirmid 9mo agoAre you just swearing off American brands (I'm sure those products aren't made in the USA besides AWS), or is it about swearing off American goods like flying in 737s? Obviously, you haven't sworn off HN, which I believe is American made, but I guess that's a niche edge case.
- blibble 9mo agoI don't think you could have paid me to go on a boeing airliner even before recent political events
- seanmcdirmid 9mo agoRyanair is a hard airline to fly on, I guess, I don't blame you.
- lenerdenator 9mo agoif only you lot had done the same with Russian natural gas.
- mothballed 9mo agoTrade deficit is a good thing. It means foreigners are keeping capital in the US as investment on their trades rather than exporting it out to balance it out.
- lokar 9mo agowhile that is true, there is more to it than that. It distorts US finances and debt market. It is helpful to the US, until at some point it will cause major problems, it's just hard to say exactly when.
- scottiebarnes 9mo agoGenerally I'd rather be in a trade surplus; I would want my country to sell more things than it buys. Energy, technology, machinery, services, whatever it is, if I'm selling, it means I have productive capability/advantage over others and thus more independence.
- direwolf20 9mo agoIf you have a deficit, you have free stuff. If you have a surplus, you have the ability to produce stuff, but you're throwing away the stuff you produce. The ideal value is probably zero — perfect balance, as all things should be.
- davey48016 9mo agoMy understanding is that while politicians generally focus on trade deficits being the result of unfair trade practices or high US labor costs, the majority of economists think that foreigners preference to invest in US financial markets is the main driver.
- cyrialize 9mo agoAnother way to frame trade deficit (sometimes) is using the phrase "investment surplus". Many top economies have trade deficits. China is a unique example that goes against that, although I believe China is trying to have their population spend more rather than save.
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- wrs 9mo agoGee, I thought the tariffs were supposed to take care of this. Isn’t that why they were calculated based on the trade deficit? /s
- nine_zeros 9mo ago[dead]
- grim_io 9mo agoThey should do a recalculation with a more SOTA model. It's been a while.
- JKCalhoun 9mo agoMaybe it takes a generation or so…
- franktankbank 9mo agoWhy wouldn't it?
- WarmWash 9mo agoHigh chance this report motivates Trump to do something extra heavy handed.
- m-hodges 9mo agoThe Trump White House literally cited the trade deficit as a "national emergency" in April 2025 to justify its actions on tariffs.¹ > I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that underlying conditions, including a lack of reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships, disparate tariff rates and non-tariff barriers, and U.S. trading partners’ economic policies that suppress domestic wages and consumption, as indicated by large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficits, constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States. That threat has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States in the domestic economic policies of key trading partners and structural imbalances in the global trading system. I hereby declare a national emergency with respect to this threat. Does not seem they've addressed their self-imposed "national emergency". ¹ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/regulating-imports-with-a-reciprocal-tariff-to-rectify-trade-practices-that-contribute-to-large-and-persistent-annual-united-states-goods-trade-deficits/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/regu...
- mekdoonggi 9mo agoSurely if we say we'll quadruple tariffs in two months and then walk it back in a month, the situation will improve?
- jamincan 9mo agoI suppose at a certain point, there wouldn't be any trade at all, which would mean Trump had finally eliminated the trade deficit.
- TrainedMonkey 9mo agoIf I was cynical I would assume that manufacturing emergencies was the whole point.
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- dfedbeef 9mo ago
- xnx 9mo agoHow could this article not include a chart? How does trade deficit differ from https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/BOPGSTB https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/BOPGSTB ?
- JKCalhoun 9mo agoWow, it's skyrocketing. It looks like it started to take off right after Trump's tariff announcement. Was that in March? (Markets are not happy right now either, but that's likely for some other reason, and will no doubt rebound suddenly because alwaysgoesup.)
- flowerthoughts 9mo ago> Markets are not happy right now either We are in a large futures expiration week. There's always extra volatility around there. https://www.investing.com/futures-expiration-calendar/ https://www.investing.com/futures-expiration-calendar/
- tempodox 9mo agoAs long as it makes America great again! /s