Trade deficit keeps getting better

In the month of January the US had the second highest monthly trade deficit in our history, over $58 billion. I am not surprised, in some ways we are the victim of our own success. As the standard of living rises, it is hard to find people to work the jobs that used to be here in the us so they moved overseas and we now import. And of course many companies have also moved their production overseas to save money and to stay competitive. And with China starting to become something of an industrial powerhouse, we are importing much more from them as well. The trade deficit from 2004 was over $600 billion, up over 20 percent from 03. Not that surprising seeing how the economy was getting better, and of course the cost of oil is also going up.

Part of the deficit has to do with currency valuation, one reason China exports so much.

You can read the story here from AP via Yahoo:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=668&ncid=749&e=6&u=/ap/20050311/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy