Trump 2020 Rust Belt Pitch Threatened by Manufacturing Recession
Trump traveled to Pennsylvania on Tuesday to make his case:
“Factory floors across this land are once more crackling with life,” Trump told workers at a Royal Dutch Shell Plc plant in Monaca, northwest of Pittsburgh. “Our steel mills are fired up and blazing bright. The assembly lines are roaring.”
But Trump faces U.S. manufacturing output declining in consecutive quarters, the common definition of recession within the industry, the result of global weakness and a trade war between the U.S. and China.
The Fed’s latest industrial production report last month showed U.S. factory output declined at a 2.2% annualized pace in the second quarter after a 1.9% rate of decline in the previous three months. Within specific industry groups, metals, machinery, textiles, paper and petroleum and coal were among those that experienced outright production downturns during both quarters.
Another gauge of American manufacturing activity fell in July to an almost three-year low, dragged down by slower production and shaky export markets that help explain the Federal Reserve’s decision to reduce interest rates last month.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-2020-rust-belt-pitch-080000058.html