by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
Imports of consumer goods spiked by 38% from a year ago. Imports are not a sign of economic strength, but are a drag on GDP.
The US trade deficit in goods with the rest of the world in March exploded by 24.6% from March 2019 and by 38% from March 2020 to $91 billion, another worst-ever milestone, in a long series of worst-ever milestones, according to the advance estimate by the Census Bureau today.
Trade deficits are not a sign of a growing economy, or any kind of economic strength, but a sign of rampant offshoring of production by Corporate America of consumer and industrial goods to cheap-labor countries. Trade deficits are a drag on GDP: