Manufacturing
The president has touted the resurgence of manufacturing in America in two SOTU speeches. He has stated among other things that our manufacturing sector is adding jobs, 620,000 new manufacturing jobs over the last four years, for the first time since the 1990s. This resurgence is fueled by abundant natural gas production, which the President stated in a trip to the Marcellus Shale region outside Pittsburgh on January 30th. At this event, President Obama and US Steel CEO Mario Langhi provided some much-needed context into how the steel manufactured there is used in our daily lives. More specifically, the steel made at this facility is being used to manufacture pipelines needed to bring natural gas to our homes. And while the steel industry manufactures and provides pipelines, the natural gas industry has supplied steel plants with cheap natural gas, which keeps production costs down. Interesting that the President takes credit for increased manufacturing that largely comes from natural gas derived from fracking which he and his supporters abhor via pipelines that he does not approve. He says his administration has launched two hubs for high-tech manufacturing. One is in Youngstown, Ohio and is focused on 3-D printing and one focused on energy-efficient electronics in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has announced the next two advanced manufacturing hubs. One is in the Detroit area, and the other is in Chicago, Illinois. All these hubs are partnerships that bring together companies and universities to develop cutting-edge technology, train workers to use that technology, and then make sure that the research is translated into real-world products made by American workers. Sound good? Well it is supposed to sound good. But doe sit make a difference or just spend money? We will have to wait and see.
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Economy rebounding, inflation hurting, and other inconsistent numbers

5/6/22
from The Gray Area:
5/6/22:
The April jobs report shows employers added 428,000 jobs—the 12th month of gains above 400,000—and the unemployment rate remained at 3.6%, just a shade above the pre-pandemic level of 3.5%, a half-century low. Biden argues he is bringing the country back better from the pandemic. If you look at the situation, what you see is what you see after every downturn, the economy pretty much comes back on its own to some degree. Biden claiming credit for workers and industry rebounding after being shut down for 2 years is not an accomplishment, unless you do something positive to stimulate the move. Biden has only done the opposite. So, lets accept the good rebounding news, realize the bad news inflation and workforce participation and understand the truth that economic growth is not in the Biden agenda. He like Obama chase an agenda that retards growth and job creation. Biden only pushes social programs and says those programs (spending) will create jobs and growth. That is a socialist, more accurately Marxist philosophy. His spending has created the inflation and workforce issues we are fighting that is retarding growth. There is a still tight labor market with some curiously inconsistent details in the numbers. Key Points:
  • Hiring rose in restaurants, hotels and other leisure and hospitality industries last month, though factories, warehouses and white-collar companies all posted strong job gains. The construction sector showed almost no job growth.
  • Wage growth cooled a bit but remained robust, with workers’ average hourly earnings up 5.5% over the past year though not enough to keep up with inflation at 8%.
  • Fed raises rates .5% to try to control inflation, but a soft landing is doubtful.
  • Less positive was a puzzling decline in the labor force—the first since September—as 363,000 people retreated to the sidelines, shrinking what was already a tight labor pool. Employers they can’t hire even if they want to. Job leavers as a percentage of unemployed was 13.1%, up slightly from March but down from the February 15.1% peak.
  • Investors, bracing for further interest-rate increases as the Federal Reserve tries to cool the economy and bring down inflation, extended on Friday one of Wall Street’s worst selloffs since the pandemic began.
  • “Domestic demand in the U.S. still remains resilient. We’re short of workers and we’re short of inventories. That’s going to help propel demand for workers.”
  • Employers posted a record-high 11.5 million job openings in March, separate federal figures showed.
  • Yet employment remained down 1.2 million jobs in April compared with pre-pandemic levels. The biggest obstacle preventing a full recovery and even stronger job growth is a lack of supply as millions of adults remain on the sidelines.
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