Trade Deficit

loss of Balance Of Trade/Trade Balance - when a country (or City Region?) imports more than it exports

The U.S. has held a trade deficit starting late in the 1960s. It was this very deficit that forced the United States in 1971 off the Gold Standard. Its trade deficit has been increasing at a large rate since 1997. - see 1980-2009 graph: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_trade#United_States_Trade_Deficit

http://www.marktaw.com/culture_and_media/TheUSTradeDeficit.html

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/01/us-trade-deficit-graphs.html

• if it weren't for oil imports, the Trade Deficit would have been improving Jan'2007-Jan'2009 (and had been flat since Jan'2004)
• previous cyclical negative-peak was 1985-89. After improving, it hit that same level in 2000 and has been getting worse ever since.

US imports:

• 1955-1980:
• 1950-2022:

China http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/visualizing-uschina-trade-relations/

• Balance an issue really only since 2005.