The Trade Deficit, the Monkey on our Back

February's Trade Deficit Widened "unexpectedly".

"Unexpectedly" to who, exactly?  Not readers of the American Energy Crisis.

And by the way, it wasn't the rise in the price of crude oil's fault - but only because imports went down hard - also "unexpectedly":

"The month's quantity of crude-oil imports fell to 286.5 million barrels from 322.2 million in January, while the price of a barrel of oil rose to a record $84.76 from $84.09 in the previous month."

Kudos and all due respect for our friendly neighborhood super-geologist Jeffrey Brown, the guy who came up with the "Import Land Model".  Looking at the recent inventory and import data, the U.S. appears to be in the beginning throws of the oil import crisis I have been ranting and raving about.

We'll know soon enough.

Yours for a better world,

Mentatt (at) yahoo (d0t) com