manufacturing

By Sober Look As yesterday's flash PMI numbers show, the declines in iron ore prices (discussed here) were indeed signaling an ongoing broad based slowdown in China's economy. Bloomberg: - China’s manufacturing may be contracting at a…

By Sober Look With all the conflicting economic indicators coming out of China, it is difficult to gauge whether economic growth has stabilized after recent declines. One indicator that clearly points to potential ongoing slowdown in…

Why is the global economy hamstrung by heavy debts and weak banks? Or put another way, why doesn’t deleveraging happen, and the weight of debt reduce, and why doesn’t the economy expand so the weak banks can once more become robust and…

As the Eurozone recession (which started months ago) worsens, the area's manufacturing activity, as measured by the PMI index, is contracting at a pace not seen since 2009. A great deal of this decline however is now driven by Germany…

Everywhere the slowdown is getting worse, from the UK, the US auto and manufacturing sectors to Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, China and Australia.

Note: Before I begin today's summary, I should note that my schedule will be very spotty over the next three weeks as I am on a working vacation. That means I will not be at work but I will be posting to the blog from time to time. I also…

We first noticed the first signs that the economy was beginning to soften about three months ago. Now the evidence of a slowdown has become so overwhelming that it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that we are headed for a recession. We…

The Empire State Manufacturing numbers showed greater growth for both production and employment than in the previous survey. These are the kind of numbers that are supportive of recovery. Nevertheless, the peak in disposable personal income…

Retail sales are at recessionary levels right now, having dropped for a third consecutive month. I need to flag the inventories data that came out this morning in the US as the only thing between us and outright recession.

Much like the US manufacturing index, the global manufacturing index has hit three year lows. The numbers indicate a contraction in global manufacturing activity, with the JPMorgan Global Manufacturing PMI now below 50% at 48.9% for June…