Forbes: The overall trade deficit went down in April, thanks to lower imports, but the trade deficit with China rose.

USAT: Smithsonian’s Museum of American History will exclusively sell American-made goods in a gift shop.

Fareed Zakaria says let’s do an infrastructure bank (WaPo).  Sen. Kerry assesses progress on his legislation (The Hill).

A Wall Street investor says China will not be “communist” again (WSJ). He should read this: China’s Communist Party plans to stay in power indefinitely (Reuters).

WSJ: Wall Street bets on China investments are not panning out.

The debt ceiling talks: the Administration looks at a possible payroll tax holiday for employers (Bloomberg), the jobs crisis is starting to impact the talks (NYT), and taxes are on the agenda for discussion (Reuters).

HuffPo: China passes the U.S. in energy consumption.

NYT: The United States is way behind Europe and Asia on clean energy technology.