The U.S. trade deficit with China was $365.7 billion in 2015 This is a new record, up slightly from last year's record of $343 billion.

The trade deficit exists because U.S. exports to China were only $116.2 billion while imports from China hit a new record of $481.9 billion. The deficit keeps growing because imports are rising faster than exports.

The United States imports consumer electronics, clothing and machinery from China. A lot of the imports are from U.S.-based companies that send raw materials to China for cheap assembly. When they are shipped back to the U.S., they are called imports even though they are profiting American-owned companies. (Source: U.S. Census, U.S. Trade in Goods With China)

http://useconomy.about.com/od/tradepolicy/p/us-china-trade.htm

Yes, U.S. companies which have cut out the American worker and then hide their profits overseas to avoid paying for the government and military that enables them to do business.

People quit riding trains and streetcars. The US companies that made passenger equipment either closed up shop or turned to other business to remain viable. There is no domestic passenger rail equipment production in the US and hasn't been for forty years. Government entities seeking rail passenger equipment have to go outside the country to buy it. Only government entities are buying passenger rail equipment these days (except maybe All Aboard Florida).

The poster above said;

But again, "1939" was not wrong.

His claim about it being 40 years since a US company made passenger railcars in the US isn't far wrong. The Pullman company built its last passenger railcar in 1987.

The good news is that they're building a facility here to build these rail cars.

But since you mention blame. You are totally wrong, it was the car companies (rather underhandedly) that put the nix on public transportation. At least they it is the reason for it here in Detroit.

You'd never know it today, but L.A. once had one of the best transit systems in the country, Pacific Electric's "big red cars" (streetcars). Then GM bought them out and replaced them with diesel buses, which people promptly stopped riding, turning L.A. into the transit desert that it was until just the past decade or so.

They gave DSR such a good deal on buses (Ford, Mack, Twin Coach) in the 50s and the streetcar system was suffering from 40 years of deferred maintenance that the most cost-effective course of action was to replace the streetcars with motor buses. Detroit had a very good bus system for a while, but the kleptocracy that ran the city in the 70s and 80s ran the bus system into the ground.

Detroit Street Railways (DSR) had nothing to do with National City Lines as it had been owned by the municipal government since the end of WWI. The first streetcar line to be converted to buses was the Dearborn Avenue line in 1925. Motor bus replacements continued (with a brief respite in WWII) until 1956 when the last streetcar line in Detroit (Woodward Ave) was converted to buses.

It may have just been a tourist attraction then, but I remember it.

and it was pretty much a tourist attraction with 90cm gauge antique trolley cars from Lisbon, Portugal rather than as a part of the city transit network. It was an L-shaped route which began at Jefferson and Randolph. It ran west to Washington Blvd and turned north on Washington Blvd to just short of Grand Circus Park. There was a car barn for storage near the David Whitney Building. I am not sure how long that trolley operation lasted.