Via Reuters:
Factory activity in New York state contracted for a second month in a row in September, falling to its lowest level in nearly 3-1/2 years as new orders shrank further, a report from the New York Federal Reserve showed on Monday.Domestically, from the continued high unemployment, over 8 percent for over 43 months, to manufacturing news indicative of the weakest recovery since the Great Depression stemming from Obama's economic policies, to foreign affairs showing Obama's foreign policies have weakened America to the point where terrorists attacked Libya's U.S. Consulate and safe house in a preplanned, organized assault on 9/11/12 and murdered a U.S. Ambassador and three others, and Obama's appeasement policies where he violates his oath of office and targets an American's constitutional right of free speech, and the Obama administration has been caught and called out on direct lies relating to the sustained worldwide attacks against the U.S., Obama has had a disastrous week.
The New York Fed's "Empire State" general business conditions index dropped to minus 10.41, from minus 5.85 in August, frustrating economists' forecasts for an improvement to minus 2, according to a Reuters poll. It was the lowest level since April 2009.
The survey of manufacturing plants in the state is one of the earliest monthly guideposts to U.S. factory conditions. The sector contracted in August for the first time in 10 months.
A major contributor to the U.S. recovery as the economy emerged from recession, manufacturing has been faltering in recent months.
Forward-looking new orders tumbled to minus 14.03 from minus 5.50. The measure was at its lowest level since November 2010.
Employment gauges deteriorated also. The index for the number of employees fell to 4.26 from 16.47 and the average employee workweek index slipped to minus 1.06 from 3.53.
That is just what portions of the media have reported.
Jay Cost mentions a few things the media has ignored:
And what did the media overlook last week?-Gas prices increased on average by $0.04, despite the end of the summer driving season. With Brent crude prices remaining elevated, gas prices are probably not going to come down any time soon.-The Consumer Price Index increased by 0.6 percent month-over-month. This is an extremely large jump, built mostly around increased energy prices.-Retail sales, excluding gas and cars, were flat.-Manufacturing production fell by more than 1 percent last month alone, and capacity utilization dropped by 1 point.-The jobs report from August was an absolute misery.-Overall, the economy is so anemic that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has initiated an unprecedented third round of quantitative easing, this one open-ended.
Let me add another the media hasn't focused on at all:
- Out of the first four days of terror attacks against the U.S., Barack Obama spent three of them on the campaign trail, Vegas, Colorado and in Washington.
- As news reports show that more "death to America" protests are erupting today, Barack Obama is back on the campaign trail attending two campaign events in Ohio.
Obama may not personally be able to do anything other than deal with streaming reports, but the optics of America and Americans being attacked while a sitting president speaks at reelection campaign events, are horrendous.
The protests started on 9/11/12, just six days ago, so polling is not reflective of how bad the optics will end up being for Obama, but it is highly likely that they will reflect just how disastrous this past week has been for the Obama reelection campaign, soon.