THE U.S. ECONOMY IS STILL OPERATING WELL BELOW CAPACITY…

This morning’s industrial production figures were a bit mixed, but continue to show one clear conclusion – the US economy is operating well below potential capacity. The 45 year average in capacity utilization is 81. At 78.5, the US economy is just a few percentage points off of past recessionary levels and in a few cases below it! No wonder this still feels like a recession….The trend is certainly moving in the right direction, but the message is clear – we could be doing a lot better.

Econoday has some details on this morning’s report: Read more...