Friday, August 31, 1984/The Battalion/Page 5B
July trade deficit climbs
to highest amount ever
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The U.S.
trade deficit deepened to a record
$14.1 billion in July as American im
porters took advantage of the dol
lar’s strength abroad, the Commerce
Department said this week.
Several records were set. Import
purchases, at $33.5 billion, were the
largest ever, as was a setback in the
trade of manufactured goods and
the deficit with Japan.
Export sales in July were worth
only $19.4 billion, leaving a deficit of
$14.1 billion, which was $1.9 billion
above the last record set in April. It
was the fifth month this year that a
record has been established.
June’s trade shortfall, at $8.9 bil
lion, looks small in comparison but
still was worse than any month last
year.
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes said the deficit “refiects the
strength of our recovery.” He pre
dicted other countries will buy more
U.S. goods when their economic re
coveries are in full swing.
But some private economists had
a less rosy view.
“The trade deficit continues to be
an economic disaster that could be as
large as $140 billion this year,” said
Jerry Jasinowski, chief economist for
the National Association of Man
ufacturers. “What is particularly se
rious about the trade deficit is that
an increasing share of it is made up
of greater imports of capital machin
ery and high technology manufac
tured goods.”
National trade in manufactured
f oods produced a record deficit of
10.5 billion in July.
In addition, farmers saw their tra
ditional surplus in food exports
shrink to the smallest ever, $909 mil
lion.
Commerce Secretary Malcolm
Baldrige said the economic slow
down that seems to be under way
could shrink the trade deficits later
this year by curbing the American
appetite for cars, clothing and elec
tronic equipment.
But his department still sees this
year’s deficit reaching $130 billion
and he noted, “The $73.8 billion
deficit for the first seven months of
this year already exceeds the $69.4
billion shortfall for all of 1983.”
Most analysts say the deficit feeds
on high interest rates that make
American goods less competitive by
inflating the dollar unreasonably, a
boon to importers at the expense of
exporters.
So far this year Japan sold $21.1
billion more to the United States
than it bought in American goods,
nearly as much as the $21.7 billion
deficit for all of last year. Japan had
a record $4.7 billion advantage in
3 %
"he trade disadvantage with
Western Europe was $2.04 billion;
Canada, $1.85 billion; Taiwan, $1.3
billion; Mexico, $770 million, and
with members of the Organization
of Oil Exporting Countries, $1.5 bil
lion, all substantially worse than
June.
David Lund, the Commerce De
partment’s senior trade economist,
blamed the surge in imports on a
summer increase in the purchasing
power of the dollar overseas,
amounting to about 5 percent.
“A 5 percent change over a matter
of weeks is a very strong incentive to
buy,” he said, especially since it oc
curred when importers are stocking
up in advance for the Christmas sea-
Book that helped thousands
made into TV movie by ABC
United Press International
NEW YORK — Martha Weinman
Lear is quick to admit that she was
not thinking of others when she
wrote “Heartsounds,” her book
about what she and her late husband
went through when he suffered a se
ries of heart attacks.
“It would be nice to say I wrote it
to help people coping with such ter
rible traumas in their own lives, but
it wouldn’t be true,” she said.
“I wrote it for both of us while we
were going through a terrible time.
Writing was sort of a way of or
dering the experience. Getting a
handle on it. Taking a detached, ob
jective, editorial stance.
“It was cathartic for both of us. It
helped us cope.”
Yet when the book was published
after Dr. Harold Lear’s death, thou
sands of people who had been
through or were going through simi
lar experiences wrote Mrs. Lear,
who wrote for The New York Times
Magazine before her marriage.
“It stunned me,” she said. “The
letters said in many different ways
the same basic thing: ‘Thanks for
helping.’
“The book was comforting them,
but I couldn’t understand how. Be
cause if I was going through that ex
perience and someone gave me
‘Heartsounds,’ I’d want to get as far
away from it as possible.”
Then a letter came from a woman
in New Orleans whose husband was
dying and it explained everything to
Lear.
“They all felt the same rage that I
felt. Not just at the gods, at doctors,
at the medical establishment, but at
the person who was dying — aban
doning them. '
“It makes you feel like a monster.
But when those people read my
book, it gave them a sense of vali
dation — it’s normal.”
It is no chance happening that
Lear’s book has been made into a
made-for-TV movie, which will air
Sept. 30 on ABC.
Lear’s first cousin is producer
Norman Lear (“All in the Family”)
and he is executive producer of the
film that stars James Garner and
Mary Tyler Moore.
Besides the Lears’ struggle to
cope, the story also illuminates the
problems doctors have dealing with
dying patients beyond dispensing
textbook platitudes.
Lear was a doctor. Suddenly he
found himself on the other side of
the fence and what he was facing
were condescending doctors and
hospital bureaucracy.
“The book was never meant as a
blanket indictment against doctors,”
Mrs. Lear said. “Some are far more
sensitive to the human side of their
profession; some are shockingly in
sensitive.
INTERNATIONAL
house r*™**
RESTAURANT
Offer expires
September 30,1984
'COUPON mtmmm
Golden Rotisserie Chicken Dinner
*2.99
Includes Soup or Salad, Vegetable, Potato, Roll and Butter.
Good Everyday After 11 A.M.
‘ ^ : ■
mi ' , ' r
MSC
Cafeteria
Now Better Than Ever. You Will Be Pleased With
These Carefully Prepared and Taste Tempting Foods.
Each Daily Special Only $2.59 Plus Tax.
“Open Daily”
Dining: 11 A.M. to 1:30 P.M.—4:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M.
MONDAY EVENING
SPECIAL
Salisbury Steak
with
Mushroom Gravy
Whipped Potatoes
Your Choice of
One Vegetable
Roll or Corn Bread & Butter
Coffee or Tea
TUESDAY EVENING
SPECIAL
Mexican Fiesta
Dinner
Two Cheese and
Onion Enchiladas
w/ Chili
Mexican Rice
Patio Style Pinto Beans
Tostadas
Coffee or Tea
One Corn Bread and Butter
WEDNESDAY
EVENING
SPECIAL
Chicken Fried Steak
w/Cream Gravy
Whipped Potatoes and
Choice of one other
Vegetable
Roll or Corn Bread and Butter
Coffee or Tea
THURSDAY EVENING SPECIAL
Italian Candle Light Spaghetti Dinner
SERVED WITH SPICED MEAT BALLS AND SAUCE
Parmesan Cheese- Tossed Green Salad
Choice of Salad Dressing—Hot Garlic Bread
Tea or Coffee
FOR YOUR PROTECTION OUR PERSONNEL HAVE HEALTH CARDS
FRIDAY EVENING
SPECIAL
Fried Catfish
Filet w/T artar
Sauce
Cole Slaw
Hush Puppies
Choice of One
Vegetable
Roll or Corn Bread & Butter
Tea or Coffee
SATURDAY
NOON and EVENING
SPECIAL
Yankee Pot Roast
Texas Style
(Tossed Salad)
Mashed
Potatoes
w/Gravy
Roll or Corn Bread & Butter
Tea or Coffee
‘Quality First”
SUNDAY SPECIAL
NOON and EVENING
Roast Turkey Dinner
Served with
Cranberry Sauce
Cornbread Dressing
Roll or Corn Bread & Butter
Coffee or Tea
Giblet Gravy
And Your Choice of any
One Vegetable
(C&vTSot's
► “Homestyle Cooking at its Best”
.mu&KlT “Served with Southern Hospitality”
p ^ Open before midnight yell practice
Stop by for breakfast before the game or
come by for dinner after the game.
Some selections starting at $3
95
(O
•c
Townshire Center
<a
Texas Ave.
9r >
775-7642
2025 Texas Ave.
Townshire Center
Banquet facilities available
6 a.m.-lO p.m. Sun.-Thurs. 6 a.m.-ll p.m. Fri. & Sat.
LOUPOT’S HAS
USED BOOKS!
SHOP EARLY & SAVE WITH
USED BOOKS FROM LOUPOT’S
If you get the wrong book Loupot will refund
your money up to 2 weeks after the semester
begins.
*FLOUPOT'Sfl3 NORTHGAl
BOOKSTORE
Plenty of parking behind the store
NORTHGATE
(At the corner
across from
the Post
Office)
SHOW YOUR FOLKS
HOW SMART YOU ARE
% Save Up To 50% On
Long Distance Calls
If Saving Money Rings a Bell
Call STAR TEL
779-2830