Posted on 09/15/2019 8:29:01 PM PDT by rktman
The moment usually comes during Greg Petras’s commute through the rolling hills and cornfields of southern Wisconsin. Somewhere between his home near Madison and the factory he runs on the edge of the small town of Brodhead, the news will turn to the trade wars and Donald Trump will again claim that China is bearing the cost of his tariffs. That’s when Petras loses it.
“It’s just an outright lie, and he knows it,” says Petras, president of Kuhn North America, which employs some 600 people at its farm-equipment factory in Wisconsin. For Kuhn, Trump’s trade war has produced a toxic mix of rising costs and falling revenues. “You’re slamming your fist on the steering wheel and saying ‘Why would you tell people this?’”
About 250 Kuhn employees spent the Labor Day holiday caught in a two-week furlough, and they’re facing another in early October. A shrinking order book means Kuhn is cutting costs and slashing production as Petras and his managers peer out at a U.S. economy that looks far bleaker from the swing-state heartland than it does in either the White House or on Wall Street.
The company’s circus-themed summer picnic survived but weekend shifts are gone. A plant that just four years ago was humming along to a record $400 million in sales together with a sister plant in Kansas is running at 50% capacity. The five-year-old, $11 million paint shop that coats the company’s manure spreaders and livestock feeders in a distinctive “Kuhn Red” is at 39% capacity. Plans for a new $4 million research and development building are on hold. “We’ll do it someday,” Petras says. “We just need things to be going in a better direction.”
(Excerpt) Read more at discussionist.com ...
Even if there is a big recession, I just can’t see any of the Dems winning. They are just too crazy even for a lot of Dems.
First reply to this phony article:
1. A recession is defined as 2 consecutive quarters with negative growth
We haven’t had 1 yet. Ain’t going to happen this year or next. So there’s that.
Certainly another Obamaish recession would detract from any incumbent’s Vote. But the economy and especially employment have never been this robust. Will there someday be another down cycle? Probably. Especially if a commie Nazi whatever socialist leftie ever gets in again. Meanwhile tho the upturn is only a couple years old and as pdjt loosens the reins that the D’s had imposed — there’s more and more economic growth and new jobs —-
Good thing the Chinese have dropped their tariffs on soybeans and other ag products that they can’t get otherwise.
Bullshit. Everyone I know has more work than they can keep up with, myself included.
Methinks the Fed, ChiComs, Iranians, EU, and Dems met this summer with a game plan to tank the economy in an attempt to defeat Trump.
We need 60,000 trucker drives. Get off you seats and apply
Back in 2013 and 14 cattle prices were sky high. The University Ag marketing folks I listened to said cattle would bottom in 2019 as part of the typical cycle that all commodities go through. So, here we are, cattle numbers are way up and prices are low.
In 13 and 14 soybeans had basically no carryover from year to year. 50 to 100 million bushel which is basically zero as i understand. Recently carryover was near 1 billion bushel, and possibly today is about 600 million. Prices are lower because of that.
This year has been horrible weather throughout the farm belt. China has flu in their swine herd and we are told it has or will cut their breeding by, get this, in half. That is alot of soymeal that China does not need this year or next.
My point is this. Sometimes the cards are not aligned in your favor and you have to weather it, in business or farming. Farming basically missed the setback in 2008 and 2009 as commodities were rising.
My other point is as prices were rising for commodities so was land, fertilizer, and especially equipment. So, equipment manufacturers may have overproduced just like farmers tend to.
Everyone needs to just be quiet and get to work.
“Recession” is not just a word with made-up meaning. A recession is two consecutive quarters of NEGATIVE GDP growth. That is not happening and is not going to happen anytime soon.
Kuhn makes capital equipment for the ag industry and after a late planting due to spring rains, farmers aren’t spending capital like they would in a good year. Agriculture always has ups and downs, as he well knows, and other manufacturers are blowing their doors off trying to keep up with demand and finding enough workers.
He’s too close to Madistan, the liberal disease is contagious.
No sign of recession around here. Houses are springing up like bad weeds. The contract I’m working on, which had contracted during the bammy years, has more than doubled in size since President Trump took office. We are actually out of room at our site and are subcontracting out at other sites... Recession? Ha!
Makes you wonder where they found the money to open a new factory in Germany.
Is it possible they have a lot of sales to China?
They also have some terrible employee reviews on Indeed.
What is “The Discussionist”?
Interesting that they consult someone who makes manure spreaders to relay this anecdote.
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Manure spreaders. Something the MSM can relate to.
I searched by the name of the first guy interviewed to see if he was a democrat activist.
Had to wade through a couple of pages of links to this same article.
Oh, there will be a recession for sure - if the Democrats win.
I’ve been on a short-term gig for the past month that was originally supposed to be a part-time, 20-hour per week deal. Last week, I was asked to work 30 hours and next week, I’ve already been approved to work overtime (greater than 8 hours) for 2 and possibly 3 days.
Yup, we’re in a real economic downturn! A far cry from when my former employer dumped me as part of a “Reduction in Force” for some cheaper workers on another continent.
“Designed from the ground up for people who love challenging, anonymous Internet debate,”
I wonder how they moderate it? Tricky.
https://www.discussionist.com/?com=aboutus
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