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...those days. The trade deficit with Japan never shrank much in dollar terms, but it became smaller as a share of GDP starting in the mid-1990s, and was eclipsed by the trade imbalance with China in 2000 (in September the U.S. trade deficit with Japan was $4.1 billion, compared to $22.1 billion with China). The issue was never resolved, but it ceased to seem so important. Could that happen with China...
...higher with China. Japan seemed like a fearsome economic rival a quarter-century ago, but it wasn't really a political rival and, with a population less than half that of the U.S., it was unlikely ever to surpass the U.S. as an economic power. China, with its billion-plus population, seems destined to surpass the U.S. in economic clout, and it appears to have designs on rivaling the U.S. as a political and military power. Which means there's no easy way out of the U.S.-China trade impasse...
When Congress wrote the Build America Bond program into February's $787 billion economic-stimulus bill, many predicted a flop. Nine months later, the municipal-bond program, which provides a federal subsidy to help states and other local governments raise funds, looks to be one of the economic recovery effort's biggest successes. Earlier this month, the volume of BABs, as they have come to be called, crossed the $50 billion mark...
...Build America Bonds have proved popular, they may also end up being costly. Already, the volume of bonds issued means the federal government is committed to spending a billion dollars in the first year of the program alone. The final price tag may end up reaching $90 billion...
...only question about BABs is the cost. So far local governments have issued just over $50 billion in BABs with an average yield of just under 6%. That means the federal government is paying just over 2% interest on that debt a year, or about $1 billion. Many estimate that the volume of BABs could triple over the next year. What's more, most of these bonds are issued with a term of 15 or 30 years. That means by the end of 2010 the federal government could end up being on the hook for as much as $90 billion...