und effect on the trade deficit. (As demonstrated graphically in appendix 7a) The rate of increase related to the trade deficit, and imports exceeded that of any other in two decades. It is also noteworthy that export growth during this time had slowed considerably and even decreased. The BEA noted that for the first time in many months, foreign markets were beginning to show signs of real recovery. Having noted this the article went on to mention that import growth had showed only a slight increase above last quarters, and exports showed a 7% increase over last quarter. If these trends continue it could mean additional growth to gross domestic product. The increases have predominantly from Japan and other industrial countries, while the Asian tigers and Latin America are still in turmoil. To what extent this news is relevant to the domestic economy in terms of growth and inflationary pressures has yet to be seen. However it does seem logical that we can expect the trade deficit to at least flatten out in the coming months, or even experience some decline depending on the resiliency of the other foreign markets. The BEA also estimated that GDP had increased by approximately 5.5% in the third quarter up from an increase of 1.9% in the second. This number was slightly higher than the upper range of an earlier estimate. Related to this increase the bureau noted that corporate profits related to current production were up, although the profits per unit of real production have decreased. These tendencies might be correlated to the factors earlier discussed relating to wage increases relative to productivity. Though not mentioned by the BEA the rate of unemployment continues to slide toward all time lows. Day in and day out, reports of local, state, and federal record low unemployment is being reported. Thus the amount of cyclical unemployment in the economy is virtually zero, and the economy is operating at near full capacity. The unemployme...
