Deficit Widens as Oil Prices Hit record

I wonder how many people really realize how serious our trade deficit is. It is big enough but now the United States trade deficit grew even larger in January as imports, including crude oil prices, zoomed to an all time high. The dollar is slipping too and that makes it even worse.The latest snapshot of trade activity as reported by the Commerce Department on Tuesday, showed that the country's trade gap increased to $58.2 billion. That was up from a trade shortfall of $57.9 billion in December and was the highest since November. It is downright scary. Imports of goods and services climbed to a record high of $206.4 billion in January. The U.S. voracious appetite for imported crude oil, where prices skyrocketed to the highest on record, figured into the increasing demand for overall imports.