I don’t see anywhere in the Fed’s notes that this data is adjusted for either the PPI or CPI-U inflation during that period.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/Releases/G17/ip_notes.htm
Simply throwing up a “gross value of products” during the timeframe of 1975 to now (encompassing two periods of significant producer price increases) doesn’t impress me much. Never has. This is one of the favorite stats of those who keep trying to explain away the declining capacity utilization, the decline in establishments, employment and the systemic trade imbalance.
As for the productivity argument: Manufacturing productivity is soaring right now. Has been since the downturn began getting real bad in late 2008.
I suppose it is then your argument that what will really benefit the US economy and the manufacturing sectors especially is another recession just like 2007 to 2009, right? Hell, if the recession pushed manufacturing output measured by GVP per employee to $300K, another recession might put it over $400K, right?
“Simply throwing up a “gross value of products” during the timeframe of 1975 to now (encompassing two periods of significant producer price increases) doesn’t impress me much. Never has.”
That’s probably because you’re a knucklehead when it comes to economics, which is why you engage in unnecessary scare-mongering about China. That’s OK. I understand.
The Fed numbers don’t use prices. As the Fed itself explains in its own notes, the productivity numbers are based on figures from trade organizations that count physical units of a good, as well as things like number of man-hours. Prices — inflated or not — don’t enter into it.
See:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/ip_notes.htm
“Source data. On a monthly basis, the individual indexes of industrial production are constructed from two main types of source data: (1) output measured in physical units and (2) data on inputs to the production process, from which output is inferred. Data on physical products, such as tons of steel or barrels of oil, are typically obtained from private trade associations and from government agencies . . .”