Let's check in on the U.S. trade deficit
Marketplace
Marketplace
4.6 • 8.5K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In case you forgot, President Trump's tariffs had one goal: narrow the U.S. trade deficit. Compare March ‘25 to March ‘26, and the deficit has shrunk by half. But from February to March of this year, it actually widened — exports rose, while imports rose even more. In this episode, what’s driving all that economic activity? (Hint, it’s not tariffs.) Plus: 30-year Treasury yields top 5%, home remodeling is projected to slow in 2027, and we visit a job fair in Philadelphia.
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Transcript
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| 1:01.9 | Well, let's see. |
| 1:03.6 | The bond markets, international trade, the satellite business, |
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| 1:32.3 | Have you along, everybody. You know that thing I say sometimes? That if you want to know what the economy has in store for us, look at the bond market? |
| 1:40.9 | Yeah, well, that. The yield on the 30-year treasury bond, that is, to say the interest the government's got to pay to borrow money is higher today than it has been in almost a year. |
| 1:52.4 | Marketplace's Kristen Schwab gets us going with the bond market tea leaves. |
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