[ninenot]

Actually, while the numbers for manufacturing (NY State, Philly Fed, Virginia Fed, KC Fed, and PMA) all look VERY good (thank God...)

There's a bit more to the story.

China's industrial sector has been having double-digit gains straight through 'the recession' and yesterday's newspaper advises that they are running out of capital to support the growth.

NOW we begin to see increases in activity in the USA.

2+2=4???

Occurs to me that the USA may be the "marginal producer;" our factories gear up only when China's factories run out of capacity. IOW, we are the high-cost production plant, which is shuttered except for cases of dire need.

Hmmmmm?

[Willie Green]

our factories gear up only when China's factories run out of capacity. IOW, we are the high-cost production plant, which is shuttered except for cases of dire need.

No, when our factories are "shuttered", they're generally shut-down permanently and dismantled.
The stats merely reflect the activity of the diminishing number that have remained open.
It is to be expected that they'd experience some "increase" by picking-up the business formerly performed by the domestic competition that has closed. But the overall trend of outsourcing our industrial infrastructure (including high-tech manufacturing) remains.