US trade: Worse than you think

It should not really be surprising that the US reported an all-time record monthly trade deficit in January. After all, this is the eighth time in the last two years that the world’s biggest importer has accomplished this. This beast has momentum. In the last year the trade deficit has grown 2.5 times faster than GDP. It looks like economists are going to have to pump up their deficit forecasts, again. In December 2004, they were expecting a 2005 current account deficit of $694bn, according to C...