And let’s make no bones about it- the US (and almost certainly the world) economies are sliding into recession, if they ain’t there already. Yesterday’s monthly drop in industrial production (2.4%) was the lowest since Mrs. Macro was born (i.e. 1974.) Ex-post, of course, the figure was spun off as being negatively impacted by the hurricanes and Boeing strike last month.
This, of course, begs two questions:
1) Haven’t there been other hurricanes and strikes in the last 34 years?
2) It’s not exactly new news that there were hurricanes and strikes last month, so why weren’t they in the economists’ forecasts (which expected a 0.8% monthly drop)?