Economy

Giant trade gap: no end in sight
January's deficit is the largest monthly imbalance yet for the US. One reason for it: a surging China.

America's trade deficit has been setting records with such frequency that it seems almost tiresome to hear it again: Another month, another $68.5 billion.

But the gap between what America imports and what it exports is growing so rapidly and relentlessly that it is provoking new concern about how long the world's largest economy can play borrower and consumer to the world.