Today the Labor Department reported that 227,000 new jobs were added in February, representing the third consecutive month of job creation. Many observers have taken the report as clear evidence that the economic recovery has taken hold in earnest. However a second data set, also issued today, throws significant amounts of cold water on that assumption.
The Commerce Department reported that, after surging for much of the last year, the U.S. trade deficit expanded by $4.3 billion in January to $52.6 billion. This is the largest monthly trade gap since October 2008, and it comes with record imports. So in terms of trade, the U.S. is in exactly the same position we were during the opening act of the financial crisis.
While it may be true that we are adding jobs, it is also true that we are not adding the kinds of jobs that will put us on a sustainable path. Large and persistent trade deficits were a primary reason that the U.S. economy imploded in the first place. If we fail to build an economy that can pay for imports with an equal number of exports, we will simply revisit the pain of last few years. - in Lew Rockwell
Peter Schiff`s comments on the economy, stock markets, politics and gold. Schiff is the renowned writer of the bestseller Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse.
