New economic indicators point to “decelerating” economy

Hot Air ^ | December 5,2011 | ED MORRISSEY

[Hojczyk]

First, the report from Commerce on durable-goods orders offers a wan outlook on manufacturing:

New orders for manufactured goods in October, down two consecutive months, decreased $1.6 billion or 0.4 percent to $450.0 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. This followed a 0.1 percent September decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.2 percent. Shipments, up five consecutive months, increased $2.6 billion or 0.6 percent to $455.4 billion. This followed a 0.3 percent September increase. Unfilled orders, up eighteen of the last nineteen months, increased $1.8 billion or 0.2 percent to $885.9 billion. This followed a 0.6 percent September increase. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 6.07, down from 6.08 in September. Inventories, up twenty four of the last twenty five months, increased $5.6 billion or 0.9 percent to $607.1 billion. This was at the highest level since the series was first published on a NAICS basis in 1992 and followed a 0.1 percent September increase. The inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.33, unchanged from September.

Nor is the “deceleration” confined to the manufacturing sector. Reuters reports on the October manufacturing report, and also on November’s results in the service sector:

The economy showed signs it was decelerating, with an index of service activity pointing to slower growth in November while new orders for factory goods declined in October for the second straight month.

The Institute for Supply Management said on Monday its services index fell to 52.0 last month from 52.9 the month before. The reading was below economists’ forecasts for 53.5, according to a Reuters survey. …

“This is the first disappointing indicator we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks,” said Cary Leahey, managing director at Decision Economics in New York.

“The economy has improved, it is still not growing very quickly.”

[goodnesswins]

NSS

[Jack Hydrazine]

But the accelerating growth of Fedzilla continues unabated!

[Prokopton]

“The economy has improved, it is still not growing very quickly.”

I have seen absolutely no evidence of this.

[DoughtyOne]

Can’t use Depression. No that wouldn’t fit. Can’t use recession. No that wouldn’t fit. Can’t even call it a bad economy, because Obama all by himself, is creating over 150,000 jobs per month, each and every month.

Keep this quiet, but this takes place while 410,000 people file new claims for unemployment each month.

I say keep it quiet, because unemployment is falling. It fell 4 tenths of one percent in just November alone. Amazing. At this rate, by November 2012, Obama will have solved all our problems, even though our workforce will be millions lighter. Our GNP will have gone down. Our tax receipts will be even less.

So keep that 410,000 figure quiet, because we sure don’t want to take a chance on putting the flames of this blazing economic growth out.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Decelerating in the face of $1.5 trillion annual deficit spending. Hmmm... Maybe that is the problem.