This is Where Industrial Production Normally Meets a Recession…”It’s getting painful: only exceptions were in the early 1950s.”
by Wolf Richter
WolfStreet.com
January 15, 2016
Painful – that’s how you can describe the slew of recent US economic data. And today’s data dump was even worse.
On a regional level, there was the Empire State Manufacturing Survey. The Current Activity Index plunged to the lowest level since March 2009. The last time it had squeaked into positive territory was in July 2015. The Expectations Index plummeted by an unprecedented 29 points, also to the worst level since March 2009.
Thank God it’s only regional. But wait…. California’s Inland Empire Purchasing Managers Index, which tracks manufacturing in the Inland Empire, started losing its grip in August and in December plunged to the lowest level since the dark days of February 2009.
The report pointed to the link between the index and the overall economy in the region: Historically, when the PMI drops below a certain level, as it did in December, and stays there for three months, it coincides with a recession in the region’s overall economy [“The Sky is Falling” on California Manufacturing, Worst since February 2009, Might Kick Regional Economy into Recession].
Then retail sales for December dropped. Turns out, holiday sales brought no respite to the beleaguered brick-and-mortar retailer.
The Rest…HERE
