US factory orders tanked again this morning, and were generally reported that way at first. To take just a few of the low-lights:
Then the Census Bureau reported better than expected car sales, leading some outlets to revise their factory orders stories with a positive spin. Here’s a representative snippet from Reuters:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New orders for U.S. factory goods fell in April as demand for transportation equipment and other goods weakened, suggesting that manufacturing remained constrained by a strong dollar and spending cuts in the energy sector.
But the outlook for manufacturing and the broader economy got a lift from another report on Tuesday showing automobile sales in May on track for the quickest pace in more than nine years.
Strong auto sales could boost May consumer spending, which was flat in April after households cut back on purchases of motor vehicles. A rebound in consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, is being eyed after slowing down sharply in the first quarter.
But — illustrating the power of reporters and headline writers to shape the news by deciding what goes where in an article — further down in most of these stories is something like this:
Analysts have pointed to easier consumer credit as one reason for increased sales since the recession. On Monday, Experian reported the average length of loans for new and used vehicles in the United States in the first quarter hit record highs, and nearly 30 percent of new-vehicle loans have pay-back periods longer than six years.
The fact that nearly a third of today’s car buyers are locking themselves into loans that run until at least 2021 would seem to be the most important part of the story, since it’s not what you buy but how you pay for it that matters going forward. With car loans, as with student loans, money borrowed and spent today comes at the expense of spending that might otherwise have happened tomorrow. Students graduating with crushing debts won’t be buying houses anytime soon, while today’s new car buyers won’t be back in the showroom until their “car mortgages” are paid off.
So the auto industry’s strength, driven as it is by long-term subprime lending, is actually a sign of weakness. These days even superficially good numbers are bad.
8 thoughts on "Even The Good Numbers Are Bad"
Any good link available for declining factory orders data, so I can track it myself?
It’s as simple as this,…If the bankers & plutocrats destroy the working middle class they destroy the base of the consumer economy.Since the middle class consumer now accounts for over 70% of the total economy the whole deal will fold into a steep deflationary correction!
When the deflationary correction occurs it will destroy the paper assets of the extremely leveraged 1% who will go down with everyone else.At this point we will begin the multi generational struggle to put things back together again,….hopefully without the Keynesian bankers!
The UE (uber elites) One Percenters are the ones planning all this and have already prepared…Do some further vetting.
That is hard to believe. We know from history that fiat currencies always revert to their intrinsic value, which is zero. Yet the UE, as you call them, are putting almost all of their wealth into fiat.
If they were planning all this, they would be bidding gold and silver up to infinity. Instead, they are shorting gold and silver to keep its value low and prop up the fiat house of cards.
You need to study up on Carroll Quigley (Clinton’s mentor).
Also vet ‘ordo ab chao’ and “problem~reaction~solution”
Hegelian Dialectic.
You state: ” Yet the UE, as you call them, are putting almost all of their wealth into fiat.”
This is totally untrue!..Google what JP Morgan Chase has
been doing with buying massive silver and what the Chinese are doing with buying gold.
JP Morgan is also hedging their bet for silver to go lower by purchasing massive silver option puts.
Our economy is all smoke and mirrors in an effort to simulate confidence.