China Posts a Trade Deficit

China posted a $7.3 billion trade deficit in February, surprising those who expected them to continue their usual habit of flooding the world with their manufactured goods without reciprocity. Analysts are blaming this anomaly on the Lunar New Year holidays, when apparently even the Chinese get lazy and party too hard to make stuff to export. Better to believe that, of course, then the alternative; that world economic growth might actually be slowing. If this continued, it would be extremely inconvenient for the Fed, who was probably hoping that somebody else would step in to buy a few Treasuries after it is done with QE2. I mean, somebody has to help keep US interest rates in check so our debt fueled recovery won't be crushed by the slightest uptick in rates. If it's not going to be the Chinese, who's it gonna be? Maybe everybody who is puking Spainish government bonds on Moody's downgrade this morning? All of those investors who are surprised, yes SHOCKED, that it's gonna cost Spain more to recapitalize its banks than the government's previous official estimates? They actually needed Moody's to tell them to sell. Anyway, the more havoc elsewhere in the world, the better the US looks in comparison.