If You are in a Hole, Stop Digging

It appears that the US has woken up to this aphorism. The following graphic from the CalculatedRisk blogsite shows that the US trade deficit (blue line) has bottomed out. And the good news it that it would look even better except for the deteriorating situation with imported oil (black line). Ignoring oil imports, things are looking good (red line).

You would think that with the US engaged in a "battle with terrorism" that shipping dollars overseas to the Middle East where a significant portion gets diverted to "terrorism" would be a national priority. But under Bush, that obvious policy is not even considered. As the graph shows, the dollars going overseas for oil are growing.