The focus on China and the Chinese economy is not just related to its size but more so the fact that it is the pivot point for the whole global system. In pure economic terms, as “end demand” from the developed world economies slows, the Chinese economy either absorbs that reduction (through its own internal “stimulus”) or passes it on [...]
There is little doubt as to Wall Street (and London) shrinking but nobody seems to be able to come up with an explanation for it. Typically willful blindness is the reason, as investment banks no longer want the duties but that just isn’t consistent with what is supposed to be a roaring economy. If anyone were to make out under [...]
It is remarkable the disparity in views on display by various markets and what that suggests about what is driving each. In stocks and especially junk bonds, you get the sense of a massive sigh of relief that “it’s all over”, and while scary for a time it’s back to momentum and not missing out on the big money bargains. [...]
Economic Reports Scorecard Survey based economic reports continue to run counter to real world, actual data. Since the real data tends to lag, an optimist would probably take this as good news. A pessimist would dismiss it altogether as useless survey based data. Me? I'm a realistic optimist. I see the survey based data as potentially positive since attitude and [...]
There is great allure in comparing our current economic circumstances to those in 1937, and why wouldn’t there be? The associations are especially striking, starting with the gaping hole left over by each contraction. Each recovery, then and now, was at least moving in the right direction but not nearly fast enough to close the gaps. So where growth rates [...]
US industrial production fell yet again in March to (benchmark revised) -2% year-over-year. With updated revisions, the contraction in IP now extends seven months rather than what would have been just five under the prior assumptions. As anticipated yesterday, auto production was a leading factor in the retreat. Manufacturing output decreased 0.3 percent in March. The production of durables moved [...]
You can always tell what kind of monthly variation any economic account provides from the commentary by which it is described. And there are, apparently, only two options: upward variations mean stimulus is working; downward variation just means that there will be more stimulus. Even by this crude cipher, you can still discern the state of the economic world since [...]
What is most amazing about the current “manufacturing recession” is that it has occurred while automobile production has remained rather stout. That would suggest the state of production beyond motor vehicles is much worse than the headline contraction rates. However, that might all be changing as we know “something” is amiss in the auto segment. Inventories of all kinds of [...]
Given the revisions to wholesale sales (downward) and inventories (upward), we knew that the overall inventory imbalance for the whole supply chain would be pushed up somewhat. Total Business Inventory to Sales was 1.41 in February, the second consecutive month at that extreme. And it really is an extreme since the last time we saw such imbalance was November 2008 [...]
The world cheered this morning’s trade estimates from China, as both exports and imports rebounded from a dismal start to the year. Exports rose 11.5% in March after falling 25% in February; imports fell “only” 7.6% after declining 13.8% the month before. Despite the difficulties with data calculations around the Lunar New Year, economists were quick with their usual glowing [...]
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