So “the Sky is Falling” on California Manufacturing

[marmar]

So “the Sky is Falling” on California Manufacturing(?!)
by Wolf Richter • November 3, 2015

[font color="blue"]“October is, for unknown reasons, the worst month in memory.”[/font]


A month ago, the Institute of Applied Research, which publishes the Purchasing Managers’ Index for the Inland Empire – with about 4 million people, the third-most populous region in California – reported: “We are not yet ready to say that ‘the sky is falling.’”

Back then, they were lamenting that the Inland Empire PMI had dropped below 50 for the second month in a row (below 50 = contraction), hitting 44.1 in September, after having already hit 46.6 in August. But the sky wasn’t falling “yet,” the report pointed out, because, given how volatile the index is, “it takes three months of figures below 50 before a new trend (in this case a trend of contraction rather than growth) is established.”

Alas, on Monday, the IAR released the Inland Empire PMI for October, and it was sharply below 50 for the third month in a row, this time at 45.9.

So is the IAR now “ready to say that ‘the sky is falling?’” We don’t know. The authors didn’t specifically address the issue. We only know that the index is falling – and a lot: back in April, it was still flying high at 60. ................(more)

http://wolfstreet.com/2015/11/03/sky-is-falling-on-california-manufacturing-inland-empire-pmi/

[Warpy]

2. Nobody but the billionaires has enough money to go shopping for new toys

Gee, what a surprise! You don't think depressed wages have anything to do with that, do you? Didn't think so. It must be manufacturers cutting back because the Fed might raise interest rates to 0.25%. That brutal amount of interest will kill business stone dead! How dare they not allow banks to borrow for free?

But it's not depressed wages. It's never depressed wages.

[beardown]

3. As are all the other districts.

The recently deleted post about how great the climate was in anti-union and anti-environment states included Texas I believe. Well, unless Dallas has moved out of Texas because even Dallas couldn't stomach the Texas 1 percenter climate, the Dallas region is doing even worse than the northern Cali region index.

Why stop with Clive Bundy's Nevada or McCain's AZ, how's the manufacturing climate in China or Viet Nam, etc.?