Please, lets not just hear from our import-tax-hike collegues who insist that whenever a foreigner works it means an American can't.
Posted on 01/05/2016 5:18:07 AM PST by expat_panama
Manufacturing activity is falling at its fastest pace in more than six years, according to fresh data out Monday. And those woes are probably going to continue, industry officials and experts predict, after years of prosperity.
"(Production activity) is not really growing, and if it is growing it is not growing by much," said Chad Moutray, chief economist at the National Association of Manufacturers, or NAM, the nation's largest advocacy group representing factory owners.
The Institute for Supply Management said Monday that its December manufacturing activity index was the weakest since June 2009, when the recession ended. The 48.2 reading was at 48.2, a full point below what analysts expected and lower than November's 48.6. A reading below 50 shows contraction.
That, coupled with a 10th straight weakness in China's manufacturing sector and the Chinese stock tumble, dragged U.S. stocks down Monday, with the S&P 500 falling 1.6% and the Nasdaq plunging by 2.7%. China's Caixin reported a 48.2 factory index reading, the 10th straight month of decline there.
Moutray says this year's outlook doesn't look good either. U.S. growth in factory output will slow to 1.7% in 2016 from an estimated 2% in 2015, with much of last year's expansion skewed toward the first half of the year. In 2014, manufacturing grew at a relatively brisk 2.8%.
Imports Hurt
Other analysts are drawing the same conclusions. Competition from cheaper imports has hurt, and that may not ease soon either, says Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.
"If retailers sell more imports and are paying less for them because of the exchange rate, they will try to sell more of those imports over U.S. goods," Williamson said. "It could be anything from a TV to a toy."
He added: "There are few signs of demand improvinq...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Please, lets not just hear from our import-tax-hike collegues who insist that whenever a foreigner works it means an American can't.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-manufacturers-still-struggling-ism-finds-2016-01-04
The business of American manufacturers contracted in December for the second straight month, giving heavy industry a sour end to 2015, a survey of executives found.
The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index slipped to 48.2% last month from 48.6% in November. That’s the lowest reading since the last month of the Great Recession.
Readings under 50% indicate more companies are shrinking instead of expanding. The ISM index has posted sub-50% readings for two straight months for the first time during an economic recovery that began in July 2009.
Manufacturers have been hurt by a strong dollar, declining exports and shriveling demand by energy producers for drilling equipment in the wake of the plunge in oil prices.
Thank God the economy is in recovery or this might be series.
“Please, lets not just hear from our import-tax-hike collegues who insist that whenever a foreigner works it means an American can’t. “
LOL. Why not just put a sign on your back saying “kick me”.
Obama’s talent shining through.
As much as I’d love to blame Obama for this, it is the logical end-game for the Chamber of Commerce absolutist position on free trade which has been shoved down our pieholes for the past 30 years.
“If retailers sell more imports and are paying less for them because of the exchange rate, they will try to sell more of those imports over U.S. goods,” Williamson said. “It could be anything from a TV to a toy.”
To do so he needs to COMPETE in the marketplace. He can’t sell a $20.00 spoon set that the man down the street sells for $12.00. He would soon find himself out of business.
Now, since everyone is blinded by the fact that the cost of manufacturing in America is far above others due to the simple fact that it is far more expensive to do so due to litigation, laws, EPA, IRS, and a whole host of other mandates, rules, employment regulations, laws and a whole host of other parasitic government mandated actions that drastically increase the cost of doing business over our foreign competitors.
I’ve been in the manufacturing business since 1979 and have watched government intervention into private business increase both the cost of doing business and the costs of compliance to all of the rules, regulations, requirements, legal exposure, employment rules and regulations, environmental exposure, civil rights exposure, and a whole host of compliance and exposure expenses we did not have back when I started.
American manufacturers are forced to wear a huge ball and chain mandated by the government while foreign competition is not.
Is it any wonder who will win the race?
Worked so far ;)
That and the ol’ “QE/rigged-market” is what makes me gag. Even Rush was spitting that one out yesterday.
That's not what we insist. It's when foreigners sell to our market but don't buy back products from our market, that foreigners working means unemployed Americans.
Import tariffs served us well for 180 years. It's past time to restore them. We can still trade in needed goods. But we don't have to allow anyone to sell into our markets and get nothing in return.
That's the pop meme, that all our dollars go to foreigners and we end up broke. The idea works great for selling op-eds and getting votes because it's an easy thought while the fact that it never happens in real life never seems to catch on. You may have heard about the balance of payments already, about how when we spend our dollars to buy Canadian shale oil or Columbian coffee that the foreigners can't use dollars for anything but buying stuff from Americans.
An American can't lose his construction job just because some German decides to build a house in Dusseldorf. US employers are prevented from hiring when the money they would have spent on wages goes instead to taxes on stuff like imports. When import taxes are cut then the American construction worker can build a house that can be sold to say, some Canadian who pays w/ money that buys us Canadian shale oil. That may be a so-called 'trade deficit' but it's still employment.
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