U.S trade deficit balloons 17.5%

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060211/economy.html?.v=2

And the year's $201.6 billion deficit with China, the largest ever recorded with a single country, brought demands for a crackdown on what the U.S. sees as unfair trade practices.

I've got an idea, let's start a trade war with China, hell why not the whole damn Pacific Rim. No problem, devalue the dollar and slap them with some tariffs

One problem sir, they own half our debt... the debt we used to finance all those imports from China.

is this a chinese handcuff?

On Brad Setser's blog through the RGE Monitor:
The US spent almost exactly as much on imports from China - 243.46b - as on imports of petroleum -- $243.18b (using the raw data). But oil imports did grow just a bit faster than imports from China. US imports from China increased by 23.8% in 2005.
http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/setser/117055

do you think if it was switched and China had the oil and Arab countries had the cheap manufacturing we would have invaded China instead of Iraq?

man that's deep Mr President...