FTA: With ECRI’s focus on economic cycles, including a large array of specialized leading indexes, we have a solid read on where we are in the business cycle. But our cyclical vantage point also allows us to distinguish between those economic developments that are cyclical, and those that are structural in nature. While we are strictly nonpartisan, political change is often spurred by economic forces, particularly longer-terms shifts, including those in foreign trade, which figured prominently in the 2016 presidential election.
Donald Trump rode to the White House in part on the promise of an economic revival at home, largely by reversing the massive deficits piling up between the U.S. and nearly all its trading partners, China chief among them.
A year later, there is an indication that this imbalance has increased against the U.S. and in favor of its trading partners.
[Full Article}(https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-12/key-trade-data-shows-rapidly-worsening-deficit)