Economy & Policy

The U.S.: export juggernaut (if you don’t count oil and China)

By Nov. 13, 2009
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Here’s the kind of interesting stuff you can learn reading this morning’s monthly foreign trade report from the Census Bureau:

Overall U.S. trade deficit for September: $36.5 billion

Trade deficit in petroleum products: $20.5 billion

Trade deficit with China: $22.1 billion

Overall U.S. trade surplus if you exclude petroleum and China: $6.1 billion

And so, in the spirit of EBITDA, Ajusted OIBDA and the like, I hereby propose a new metric: Trade balance before oil and China, or TBBOC (pronounced “Tupac”). Doesn’t it make you feel better already?