Manufacturing Is Officially In a Recession

With 2019 behind us, we now have a full year’s worth of measurements of the ISM’s Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing. Here it is:

The typical measure of a recession is two consecutive quarters of contraction, and the quarterly averages for Q3 and Q4 are both negative. So manufacturing is in a recession.

The lesson here is simple: pray that Donald Trump ignores you. If he loudly tries to help, you are almost certainly doomed.

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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