Friday, March 20, 2009

Welllllll, This CAN"T be Good News....


Amid his (necessary and needful) excoriations of the Israeli State and the IDF for their war-crimes in the recent 'unpleasantnesses' in Gaza, and his hortatory examination of Eric Holder's apparent reluctance to prosecute, or even investigate former Busheviks for their war-crimes, and his concordance with Paul Krugman's assessment of the Obamistas' abysmal handling of the AIG fiasco (among other economic bobbles and drops), the other day Harpers' ubiquitous critic and raconteur Scott Horton reminded us just how bad the global economic situation has become:
Global Collapse in Manufacturing

More seriously bad news. The New York Times reports that around the globe, manufacturing is in a freefall:
That manufacturing is in decline is hardly surprising, but the depth and speed of the plunge are striking and, most worrisome for economists, a self-reinforcing trend not unlike the cascading bust that led to the Great Depression. In Europe, for example, where manufacturing accounts for nearly a fifth of gross domestic product, industrial production is down 12 percent from a year ago. In Brazil, it has fallen 15 percent; in Taiwan, a staggering 43 percent. Even in China, which has become the workshop of the world, production growth has slowed, with exports falling more than 25 percent and millions of factory workers being laid off.

In the United States, until recently a relative bright spot for manufacturing despite the steady erosion of blue-collar jobs, industrial output fell 11 percent in February from a year ago, according to statistics released Monday by the Federal Reserve. “Manufacturing has fallen off the cliff, and it’s certainly the biggest decline since the Second World War,” said Dirk Schumacher, senior European economist with Goldman Sachs in Frankfurt.

The pattern of manufacturing and trade ominously recalls how the financial crisis of 1929 grew into the Great Depression: tightening credit and consumer fear reduced demand for manufactured goods in one country after another, creating a downward spiral that reduced global trade.
Time this afternoon for a depression cocktail.
I'll drink to that...

4 comments:

One Fly said...

No container ships moving-rail cars sitting-20 mil laid off in China and the pundits and most everyone else say it'll come back -it always will.

I don't think so this time.

Anonymous said...

I wish the revolution had begun whe i was younger...

Ruth said...

Bill Moyers produced an actual Socialist last night who traced the movement to labor, making me wonder if the loss of manufacturing is one reason for wealth being more and more its own device. Anyway, will be posting on Socialism a little later today.

Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...

Ruth I was acquainted with Mike Davis through the critical educational research community long years ago...