Back in the 80s, I was working in Phoenix.
One day, two friends and I went out to a Chinese all you can eat buffet for lunch.
We stayed there and ate, ate and ate. A long time.
After we left, I was driving back to work. One of my friends named Randy was so witty. He started singing the theme song with the words, “a 3 hour lunch, a 3 hour lunch”.
I never laughed so hard in my life. We were stuffed and just laughing and laughing. Them good ole days.
The good old days here was when a group of us fishing together came in to Port Angles,WA the guy with the most fish/biggest check/most cash for the night bought steak and eggs for everyone.
Joe Blogs reports that Russian manufacturing (PMI, as reported by S&P) is now contracting (September), despite the wartime economy Defense purchases - the first decline in total manufacturing since April 2022.
One interesting inflection, has been net layoff of workers, apparently because of a shortage of adequately skilled candidates.
Producer prices are still growing at a rate of 10%, although that is down from almost 20% in February, producer prices in 2024 overall are growing on par with the high (about 10%) rate of 2023.
Transportation costs have been growing, the cost of capital has increased significantly, and domestic civilian demand has declined. Reductions in productivity, new orders and staffing level.