Media Missed Really Awful News on Industrial Production

[Hannah Bell]

Most people probably missed the incredibly bad news on industrial production that the Fed released on Wednesday because the media gave it very little attention. The Fed reported that output in manufacturing fell 2.5 in January. It revised the December decline downward by 0.6 percentage points to 2.9 percent.

This puts that annual rate of decline over the last three months at an incredible 26.7 percent. The rate of capacity utilization in manufacturing is now 68.0 percent, far lower than at any point since 1987, when the current series began. This rate of utilization is almost certainly lower than the troughs of 1981-82 recession, and will certainly fall lower in the months ahead.

This is seriously bad news, but most people probably did not hear about it, perhaps because the media were reporting on people whining about the entitlement crisis.

--Dean Baker


http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press_archive?month=02&year=2009&base_name=media_missed_really_awful_news

[Triana]

1. K & R

The media's job though, isn't to report the news. In a sane world it would be but in THIS world it isn't. The corprat-pwned media's job is to parrot corprat-friendly propaganda to prop up the plutocracy.

If we want news, we have to get it elsewhere. Thank you for helping with that!

[opihimoimoi]

2. K & R...America needs to hear it and brace for more shit...

[GeorgeGist]

3. The good news is that capitalism is on the demise.

The bad news is that the average American doesn't want to believe the the rich man's profit comes at their expense.

[Festivito]

4. Jeepers, hamburger assembly did not help manufacturing numbers.

That is truly the death knell.

[Laelth]

5. K&R for reality ... even if it's unpleasant. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth