WASHINGTON - Manufacturing in the United States slumped further in November as exports tumbled and automakers slashed their assembly rate to the lowest level in more than 18 years....
The figures may intensify pressure on the Bush administration to prevent a collapse of General Motors Corp., the biggest US carmaker.
Why did PRODUCTION CUTS just crisscross my brain?
As consumer demand slides with higher unemployment and a cutoff of credit, manufacturing is poised to keep contracting into 2009, economists said.
"Companies are cutting back on investment, capital, inventories, and production, and you should see this number going down," said Lindsey Piegza, a market analyst at FTN Financial in New York. "The crisis has spread to all parts of the production line and we're really going to have to cut back more."
As a recession spreads across the globe, the overseas demand for products that had sustained US manufacturing growth is drying up. The Commerce Department reported last week that exports declined in October for the third straight month.
Translation: There was NO GROWTH HERE, America!
"Manufacturing is getting hit from every direction," Joshua Shapiro, chief US economist at Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc. in New York, said before the report. "Exports are starting to decline on top of domestic demand having blown up the last couple of months."
Odd choice of words, isn't it?
International demand for US financial assets is also diminishing as investors worldwide keep more of their money at home. The Treasury Department said yesterday that foreign net long-term purchases of equities, treasuries, and bonds amounted to $1.5 billion in October, the lowest level since August 2007.
NO ONE buying up our bad debt, huh?
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Well, the SLOWDOWN WORKED!
WASHINGTON - The Treasury is continuing to study a possible rescue plan for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC - an evaluation that President Bush said won't take long because of the automakers' fragility....
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