As a lifetime member of the Wall Street Curmudgeon's Club, I'm beginning to feel just a little bit uncomfortable. Yes, I know its just the beginning of the new year, and that everyone is still basking in the glow of the holidays. But still there's just a little bit too much good cheer to make me feel right. Oh sure, we still have too much debt in the system, and I've noted that the Fed has to constantly inject funds into the overnight repo markets just to keep them afloat. And all that seems about right, it lets me get together with my other Curmudgeons and discuss, over a vintage glass of Chardonnay, how the world's falling apart. But I have to tell you that this next week is trying my patience...
Read moreNow when Washington and Wall Street think of international commerce, they usually think of the country's balance of trade. And fair enough. The Balance of Trade Numbers are an excellent score card of how a country in doing in the international arena. And for the last quarter of a century or more, the balance of trade numbers show that the United States has been loosing, and loosing bad when matched up against the Peoples Republic of China. For 25 straight years, China trade with the US showed a trade deficit for the Americans. Unrelenting, always growing. Money flowing to China from the US coffers. Until last November. In a report released on Tuesday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis is reporting that for the first time in memory there was a drop in the American Trade Deficit. And not an insignificant drop, an 8% drop, representing a reduction in that trade deficit of $43 billion dollars. Washington is scratching their head, Wall Street is puzzled. What just happened?
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