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Manufacturing is growing in the United States, but it isn’t generating too many jobs

Manufacturing has been in focus recently in the United States with trade tariffs being discussed and the talk of bringing back some manufacturing to the United States.

U.S. manufacturing has been growing but it isn’t generating too many new jobs.

The reasons are simple:

  • Increase in productivity
  • Increase in automation
  • Shift towards higher value goods (like aircrafts or high-end electronics)

Here are some graphs,

Indexed Number of manufacturing jobs vs Indexed manufacturing output (Both indexed to January 2012 = 100)


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Weekly Overview: Deutsche Bank; Italy; US Unemployment

Deutsche Bank

Apparently, the new CEO of Deutsche Bank is “sick and tired of bad news”. Here are some recent events,

April 8: Christian Sewing is appointed new CEO of Deutsche Bank.
April 15: The European Central Bank (ECB) asks Deutsche Bank to estimate the cost of winding down its investment bank.
Thursday, May 31: The Financial Times reported that Deutsche Bank’s US subsidiary was added to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s list of “problem banks,” or those with weaknesses that threaten their financial survival.
Thursday, May 31: Deutsche Bank shares hit an all-time low.
Friday, June 1: Standard & Poor’s cut Deutsche Bank’s credit rating from A- to BBB+. The ratings agency also questioned whether Deutsche Bank’s new CEO Christian Sewing would be able to return the bank to profit.
Friday, June 1: Deutsche Bank is going to face new cartel and criminal charges in Australia.
Friday, June 1: Deutsche Bank shares hit new all-time low.

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UK house sales and house price growth are slowing but is this time any different?

Several people in the UK didn’t experience the great (property price) crash of 2008. But several other people did. A decade on – do people remember? Here is a sample of prices from London’s financial district – Canary Wharf. And no, we haven’t taken the worst-case example, this is truly representative,

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The U.S. only charged 1.65% in import tariffs in 2017

We wrote about the average import tariffs or custom duties per country recently. That data set was sourced from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and it showed that the average import tariff or custom duty for the United States is currently 3.48%. We did mention that the WTO number is averaged across all products; the actual tariffs could be different based on the product mix of imports as well as any special trade deals the country may be part of.

In the case of the U.S., the actual import tariff or custom duty was just $38.49 billion or 1.65% of the value of $2.34 trillion in imports in 2017.

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Weekly Overview: Investors seek safety as bond yields fall; Crude Oil down 5%; Baltic Dry Index down 15%; Bank of England Governor prepared to cut or freeze interest rates; US E-Commerce Retail sales soaring

Investors seek safety

What a difference a week makes, just last week everyone was talking about soaring bond yields. Investors are now seeking safety with developed economies bond yields falling significantly during the week.

Here are some 10-year bond yields, figures in brackets indicate change during the week.

US 2.93% (-15 bps)
UK 1.32% (-21 bps)
Germany 0.41% (-17 bps)
Canada 2.35% (-14 bps)
Switzerland 0.00% (-13 bps)
Netherlands 0.59%% (-15 bps)
Australia 2.79% (-13 bps) Continue reading “Weekly Overview: Investors seek safety as bond yields fall; Crude Oil down 5%; Baltic Dry Index down 15%; Bank of England Governor prepared to cut or freeze interest rates; US E-Commerce Retail sales soaring”