World View & Market Commentary. Forest first; Trees second. Focused on Real & Knowable facts that filter through the "experts" fluff and media hyperbole. Where we've been, what the future may hold and developing a better way forward.
Equities are lower this morning with the dollar higher, bonds higher, oil still in la la land, gold & silver higher, and food commodities still hanging out around support.
The still amazingly hypocritical Mortgage Bankers Association came out with more amazing double-digit one week moves for the data of the day, completely not believable, here’s a snippet from Econoday:
Highlights Mortgage application volumes in the December 2 week bounced right back following the lull of the Thanksgiving week, up a weekly 8.3 percent for purchase applications and up 15.3 percent for refinancing applications. Purchase applications have been trending higher which is a positive signal for home sales. Low rates are lifting demand for mortgages with the average 30-year FHA loan down two basis points to 3.98 percent. Conforming 30-year loans ($417,500 or less) averaged 4.18 percent, down three basis points, with jumbo loans (over $417,500) also down three basis points to 4.52 percent.
Please.
Perusing the news this morning, I am left with little but an empty pit and a gnawing bad feeling. I see a world in disarray and in moral decay. Ravaged and ransacked by the purveyors of debt, disconnects from reality are everywhere.
In Russia, the obvious charade of election is drawing protests, people thrown in prison. The poll on CNN asks Americans if the elections were real or rigged – 90% of Americans can see that they are rigged. Yet what they fail to see is that Putin simply learned his tricks from America – present the illusion of election while manipulating the flow of money, the economy, and work the strings of your puppets who entertain the masses.
Just look at the Republican candidates and the degeneration of “debates” into just the latest reality T.V. show where ratings are all that matter. Newt Gingrich leading the polls, are you kidding? Talk about moral decay, you might as well vote for Charles Manson and just get straight to the bottom.
Sure, you’ll get to vote this upcoming election, just like the people in Russia. You can vote for the Obama puppet who is feeding the financial industry massive profits, at your expense, or you can vote for the next shameless narcissist who will also feed the financial industry your life’s blood. The choice is yours – what a country, what a world.
And on this Pearl Harbor day, I can’t help but think about the karma that has come back to haunt Japan. Think about this… nearly 70 years ago Japan made the decision to attack Pearl Harbor. They lost the war and have been occupied by America ever since. They were dragged into the western way of the world, replete with Westinghouse reactors. To say that they are now paying the price is the karma understatement of the century – the mainstream media is still ignoring the Fukushima fallout, of course, but you need only read the nuclear headlines to get a feel for the trauma that country is really going through. And that’s just the physical reality that is now northern Japan – the economy is experiencing its own China Syndrome where trillions upon trillions of Yen simply vaporize upon contact as they spew from the reactor that is the western style of modern banking, aka debt saturation.
China is there too, and in Australia and all over the globe “growth” is weak despite measuring in money while producing massive quantities thereof. A lousy 1% GDP is all they could muster Down Under, yet you can hear the “liquidity” sloshing around the central banker’s coffers all the way from here.
In Europe they are drowning in “liquidity,” so much of it fake that the purveyors of debt know how fraudulent it is and thus with coffers overflowing the “liquidity” doesn’t go anywhere. How can it? You see their “liquidity” is another man’s debt! But the purveyors of debt have already been so good at their job that the whole world is already saturated with all the debt their income can possibly service.
Good thing, then, that the American purveyors are throwing out that “liquidity” lifeline! Glug, glug, glug goes the Titanic as she settles ever so silently to the bottom of the deep morass.
Sure, you get to vote, you’re in charge of this “democracy,” LOL. Go Newt, you’re my fat assed immoral hope for the future! Be sure to give Putin hugs – and say hello to Jamie Dimon, you can talk to him anytime, just give a tug on the strings.
Bill produced an excellent video where he hits directly on target, right on the root issue of WHO it is that produces our money! Way to go, Bill!
He does an excellent job of calling out the illegal "Fed," along with the IMF, and to that I would add World Bank - all sham and highly undemocratic money from nothing, self-anointed central banking criminals who have never received proper authorization from the people of the planet and in fact are operating against our rule of law as spelled out in our own Constitution! Absolutely, they are literally taking over countries and Bill correctly points out what they have done to both Italy and Greece - their game is to enslave with debt (which they did nothing to create), and then to take over direct control. Money creation is all about power and control.
Donald Trump running a debate? Are you kidding me? Until our nation is conscious enough to start voting for people like Bill Still, we are going nowhere fast. Go Bill, way to get the proper word out!
In our down is up world, Equity markets in Europe are higher after S&P put all of Europe on credit watch “negative.” The spin is this will prompt them into action and thus it is a good thing! What a charade.
With our futures slightly higher, the dollar is also higher. Is the U.S. a safe haven? LOL X 100 trillion, plus or minus a few tens of trillion. Bonds are slightly lower, oil is still hovering above $100, gold & silver are slipping, while food commodities head in the correct direction – lower.
There is no meaningful economic data today, so I want to take the time to talk a little bit more about Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).
Many brokers are pushing them as a way for people to be “self-directed” in their retirement plans. When they first came out I actually thought they may be a good thing as they allow people to “invest” in things they couldn’t otherwise and they do allow ordinary people to play the markets in both directions. However, this industry has morphed into something that more closely resembles a gambling parlor. My advice is to stay as far away from ETFs as possible, here’s why…
An ETF is a DERIVATIVE. It is simply a piece of paper of some underlying market. It’s basically a market on top of some other market. It is someone’s attempt to create a market so that they can profit from the market – it is NOT created to benefit you, society, or some business. And unlike stock, it provides no working capital for any legitimate business. In fact, I would contend that they are not legitimate as they serve no real purpose to society, they are simply a form of legalized gambling.
Some would say they provide a legitimate hedge opportunity – and to that I would say that “investing” in something that requires you to hedge means that you are assuming too much risk in the first place! Thus the very need for hedging means there is too much risk already. In the second place I would contend that there are insurance markets for legitimate hedge reasons and those insurance markets are at least regulated.
ETFs have two ways of eating through your money. The first is that they are extremely high in management fees – remember, they are created to benefit the manager, not the sucker who buys them! But even bigger than that is the fact that the managers buy other derivatives to make their own derivatives work! This causes massive slippage. Slippage is when the underlying market moves say 10%, but the derivative only moves in that direction by 7%! Slippage is so bad in some ETFs, that if you own them for more than a few days then you can be right in your direction but still lose money because the ETF slips so badly!
In fact, this effect is so bad that many ETFs hide slippage under verbiage like this that accompanies SDS, the “Ultrashort” (2x) SPX ETF (designed to go up when SPX goes down at two times the rate):
This Short ProShares ETF seeks a return that is -2x the return of an index or other benchmark (target) for a single day, as measured from one NAV calculation to the next. Due to the compounding of daily returns, ProShares' returns over periods other than one day will likely differ in amount and possibly direction from the target return for the same period. These effects may be more pronounced in funds with larger or inverse multiples and in funds with volatile benchmarks. Investors should monitor their holdings consistent with their strategies, as frequently as daily.
Get that? Not only will your returns vary, but they may even differ in direction! To see a real world example of this, let’s look at a two year chart of SDS (red and black dashed line) with SPX (solid black line) in the background:
If you had purchased SDS in say May of this year and held it until today, you would have been absolutely correct in direction, and thus you would expect SDS to pay double the amount that the SPX is down. But in fact your SDS investment LOST YOU MONEY! You were right, you bet correctly, and yet you LOST MONEY. Great investment, great “hedge!”
So, what happened to your money? The derivatives players took it from you – period.
This “market” is completely not regulated – as in any regulators left, like the SEC, are completely in on the scam via the revolving door.
Again, my advice is to stay completely away from ETF’s of ALL types. Although some are better than others, they are all derivatives and they are not guaranteed by anybody. Again, they are nothing but sanctioned gambling, STAY AWAY.
To be fair, I will show you an example of an ETF that does track the underlying very well – that is the gold ETF, GLD. Below is a 3 year chart of GLD with the price of Gold underlying it, you can see that indeed it does have a nearly perfect correlation:
To their credit, the managers of GLD buy actual physical gold and place it in a vault. Thus your derivative has an actual physical something behind it – most ETFs do not. This is the proper way to run an ETF, and in my opinion if you’re going to allow them, then they must track the underlying by actually owning the underlying or they should be illegal. Still, as good as GLD is, I do not personally recommend owning it, I would prefer to simply own the physical metal myself as I know that when our monetary system unwinds that history proves that gold can be confiscated and I think it wise that ownership not be tracked or known by anyone.
I hope this article saves someone some grief – buyer beware! Stay as far away from ETFs as you can.
Good Morning, Equity futures once again were ramped higher over the weekend. The cover story for this weekend’s HFT manipulation on no volume is once again “progress” in Europe as this time they are jawboning about rewriting the Eurozone rules. Naturally, if you don’t like the game being played, but you want to retain your power and control, you simply change the rules of the game. That is exactly what has happened already, especially here in the United States, as those who produce money from nothing use that money to maintain power and to write their own rule of law. That’s why we have two distinct rules of law, one for them, and one for everybody else.
Meanwhile, the dollar gets killed so that we pay for it, bonds are lower, oil is higher, gold & silver are close to even, and most food commodities are slightly higher.
Factory Orders and the Service ISM come out at 10:00 Eastern this morning and will be reported inside of today’s daily thread. Data for the rest of the week is fairly light.
Our friend, Davos, has a blog called Davos World Economic Forum that is now linked to my favorite blogs. He is also writing a new book, please wish him best of luck on that important endeavor.
Below is just the introduction to his latest article where Davos takes the captured reality from the psychopathic direction. His article has a lot of good videos, graphs, and insights, so please follow the link by clicking on the title below to read the article in its entirety, and make sure that you bookmark his blog.
Of course there are always psychopaths in society, the key mistake of rational, empathetic people was allowing the private banker narcissists the ability to control the production of money. That came first - they then used that ability to capture in the way Davos describes in his article, and I look forward to reading his book when it comes out...
Psychopaths flew financial weapons of mass destruction (derivatives) into the twin towers of our economy, the housing market and the stock market. Ten trillion dollars of wealth imploded in a cloud of dust.
Ninety-nine percent of the economic experts – financial planners, economists, economic professors, brokers, and investors – missed the largest bubble in history as well as the systemic risk that the bubble posed.
The National Board of Economic Research (NBER) (who is responsible for declaring a recession) was 9 months late calling the worst recession since the Great Depression.
How Economics Were Hijacked
I advocate that the larger story here isn’t derivatives or the Financial Crisis of “2008,” but instead how economics has been secretly hijacked.
When I began researching for the book I’m writing I had a premise: “Corporatocracy” had replaced capitalism. That is true, but I realized the more important underlying fundamental was how corporatocracy came about. Corporatocracy grew out of souless corporations being given human status even though their sole purpose was creating wealth for the shareholders. Corporations themselves became uncaring individuals – many of them run by uncaring individuals. Psychopaths to be blunt.
Research I conducted revealed why and how psychopaths captured economics, how this catastrophe was missed and what the ramifications will be. For more on corporatocracy please read “Why We Are Totally Finished.” There is also a super documentary called “The Corporation” which can be viewed off my blog Psychopathic Economics.
“Semiopaths” & Psychopaths
Psychopaths aren’t limited to seemingly nice people who invite you over for dinner, then cut you into pieces and serve your fresh innards on a plate. The World Health Organization has a “Personality Diagnostic Checklist” that is used in conjunction with this work. You’ll recognize it by the check marks.
Psychopaths used the following five weapons to take control of our global economy: 1.Political Economic Capture. 2.Scholarly Economic Capture. 3.Statistical Economic Capture. 4.Mainstream Media Economic Capture. 5.Regulatory Economic Capture.
All but one of these, Regulatory Economic Capture, are new terms that I’ve identified.
Equity futures were higher overnight with still more rumors, dreams, and jawboning in Europe about creating another $270 billion from thin air and tossing it at the bankers. The headline Employment numbers for November came in with Private Payrolls supposedly creating 120,000 jobs (didn’t really happen), and the headline rate falling from 9.0% all the way to a Presidential touting prior to his re-election 8.6% (definitely didn’t really happen). And thus what we have is a white washed snow jobs report, and the dollar is lower, bonds are flat, oil is higher, gold & silver are higher, and food commodities are flat this morning as the real numbers of unemployed continue to pile up at the food banks.
It’s getting ridiculous how large the separation between these economic reports and reality is. It requires a huge amount of work time just to unspin them, and I’m an expert at doing so, just imagine how little effort the majority put into understanding these numbers. It’s subversive and perverse, it’s a part of the cover-up to maintain power and control by those who possess it. They possess that power and control because they unconstitutionally (illegally) were given the power to create money.
In a nutshell, the only reason the rate fell to 8.6% was because the BLS lowered the Participation Rate by more than 200,000 people, while those "not in the Labor Force" rose by a whopping 576,000! This has the effect of saying those people just aren’t interested in working, and therefore they are no longer counted as unemployed! More on this later, charts included, ugh.
First let’s hear from Econospin, note the reasons cited for the rate falling to 8.6%:
Highlights The November jobs report overall came in with improvement, though there were mixed results. The unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped sharply. Payroll jobs in November advanced a relatively strong 120,000 after gaining a revised 100,000 in October (originally 80,000) and increased a revised 210,000 in September (previously 158,000). Analysts forecast a 131,000 boost in overall payrolls. Revisions for September and October were up net 70,000.
Once again, private payrolls gained more than overall. Private nonfarm payrolls gained 140,000, following a 117,000 increase in October and 220,000 rise in September. The November boost fell short of market expectations for a 150,000 increase.
In the private sector, goods-producing jobs slipped 6,000 after a 4,000 decrease in October and 36,000 boost in September. Construction jobs fell 12,000 in October after decreasing 15,000 the month before. Manufacturing employment edged up 2,000 after a 6,000 rise in October. Mining increased 2,000, following a 6,000 rise the prior month.
Private service-providing jobs advanced 146,000 in November, following a 121,000 gain the prior month. The November increase was led by trade & transportation (up 58,000), professional & business services (up 33,000), leisure & hospitality (up 22,000), health care (up 12,000). The temp help subcomponent of professional & business services rose 22,000 after a 16,000 gain.
The public sector continued to decline as government employment decreased 20,000, following a 17,000 drop in October.
Wage growth has been volatile recently as average hourly earnings in November slipped 0.1 percent, following an upwardly revised 0.3 percent gain the month before. Analysts predicted a 0.2 percent increase for November. On average, wage growth has been growing but at an anemic pace. Given the upward revision to October, the November dip should not been so disconcerting. Still, the uptrend is modest. The average workweek for all workers in November was unchanged at 34.3 hours, matching the market median forecast.
From the household survey, the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to 8.6 percent from 9.0 percent in October. The consensus forecast called for 9.0 percent. The rate decline reflected a 594,000 fall in the number of unemployed and a 278,000 increase in household employment. Basically, the unemployment rate fell largely due to a decline in the participation rate although household employment growth recently continues to exceed payroll jobs growth by a notable degree.
Overall, the latest employment report is favorable for the recovery continuing to gain traction. On the news, equity futures edged down as expectations were slightly stronger for payroll data and the unemployment rate dip was discounted.
“…the unemployment rate fell largely due to a decline in the participation rate.” That is the key line they buried in the middle, it is the entire reason for the drop.
Note the notes in this report, pay particular attention to the following:
Effective with the release of The Employment Situation for January 2012, scheduled for February 3, 2012, population controls that reflect the results of Census 2010 will be used in the monthly household survey estimation process. Historical data will not be revised to incorporate the new controls; consequently, household survey data for January 2012 will not be directly comparable with that for December 2011 or earlier periods. A table showing the effects of the new controls on the major labor force series will be included in the January 2012 release.
In other words, they are once again changing the way they report data and once again comparisons to the past will be meaningless. In other words, they are going to manipulate the data some more. Nice of them to warn us. But the truth is the data is so far from comparable already it is nothing but a sick joke – the difference now being a reported 8.6% unemployment rate versus the reality that is closer to 23%!!
Note in the Shadow Stats chart above how John William’s numbers that track how it used to be calculated are on an ascending path, while the current numbers from the BLS are on a descending path! There you have it, right there – the BLS has manipulated the numbers so badly they are simply false, a giant lie.
The Birth Death Model, as I expected, subtracted jobs as November is a corrective month for that ridiculous model. Thus it pulled numbers from the supposed job creation, that is one reason why the headline number missed as most people don’t account for this particular manipulation:
The Alternate Table is also affected by the Participation Rate, still U-6 is running 15.6%, a far cry from the advertised 8.6%!
Turning back to the Participation Rate, note how it has been falling since about 1999 (chart not updated with today’s figures which are lower):
Participation Rate:
Now let’s take a look at the number of people the BLS says are not in the Labor Force - this number swelled by a whopping 576,000 people in just this month alone (not reflected on chart below). It adds up to a whopping 28% of the total population, and you can see is growing at an ever increasing pace:
Not in Labor Force:
Now let’s look at the Mean Duration of Unemployment again. Tell me how it goes to historic highs while at the same time the Unemployment Rate is supposedly falling? One is lying, guess which one…
Mean Duration of Unemployment:
Now let’s take a look at something interesting… Below is a chart showing the number of Unemployed in thousands (blue), along with the advertised baloney Unemployment Rate. Note how prior to about 1975 they track one another pretty well, but since that time the gap between the two is getting wider and wider! Let’s just call that the Reality Gap! The numbers of unemployed are rising and hitting new highs while at the same time the advertised rate is not making new highs:
Reality Gap:
Now, who can tell me what is wrong with the following chart? In blue is the Mean Duration of Unemployment, and in red is the advertised Unemployment Rate. Note what’s been happening since 2010… at no time prior has there ever been a disconnect like that with the rate supposedly falling while at the same time the duration of unemployment is skyrocketing – again, which one is lying?
More Reality Gap:
The bottom line for me is that it is clear the data is being manipulated and that the separation between reality and the spin is growing wider. It’s my belief this is all a part of the tendency to hold onto power. Power emanates from the ability to create money – it is that power that gives the ability to write and to rewrite the current rule of law, regardless of whether that law conforms to our Constitution or to any semblance of a proper and natural rule of law.
Manipulation of the data at this point aims to ensure the status quo. Note the headline on CNN immediately following the release of this report: Jobless Rate Plummets!
I’m not sure that pointing out this disconnect is worth the effort at this point. I think the impossible math they’ve created is expressing itself now in a myriad of ways and they are obviously desperate and taking desperate actions to hold onto that power. These are all a part of the “other events” that I’ve been talking about for years. More are on the way, it’s far from over, and 8.6% is nothing but a huge lie…
Stocks are slightly down to about even after yesterday’s ridiculous money bomb. The dollar is lower, bonds are lower, oil is slightly higher, gold & silver slightly lower, and food commodities are slightly higher.
What happened yesterday was most definitely a desperate act designed to keep the impossible math from collapsing in upon itself. Debt saturation has completely brought the European financial system to a stand still. There is no “solution” in Europe within the central banker’s false paradigm, and thus the United States central bankers took it upon themselves to issue massive quantities more of money to lend to the European banks – just what they need, more debt.
To me it’s literally insane - both the actions of the central banks, and of the people for allowing them to continue destroying currencies, economies, and lives. It’s a black eye for humanity, and it will accomplish exactly nothing in the end. In fact, more debt only makes the debt saturated condition worse, it is certainly no cure. Witness the fact that on the same day this “liquidity” pump sent equities soaring, yields in the Eurozone also rose.
Remember how I called B.S. to the “Black Friday” hype? Hype it was, here is all Econocomplicit could muster to describe chain store sales for November:
Highlights Today's chain-store results do not confirm the enormous strength of anecdotal reports for the Black Friday weekend. Almost as many chains are posting softer results for November than they did for October with most reporting little difference. Following their November results, chains are holding to guidance which on the whole point to steady rates of moderate year-on-year growth through the holidays.
Can you believe the hype in the media and in the markets? Compare that to this. Is the media even reporting this? Wow, are we a dumb money fluff society or what.
I have a pretty good nose to sniff out bullshit, and I’m stating for the record that much of the recent supposedly good economic data has that odor of manipulation about it. The markets certainly are manipulated, all of them, none are real.
Watch the VIX today, it is currently below the bottom Bollinger band. If it closes here then a market sell signal will be set up for the future.
For those that didn’t see it, a sitting Congressman, Dennis Kucinich, created a video clearly stating the criminality of the “Fed.” Yes, Congress has the power to end this problem immediately – they have the power granted to them by the Constitution to end it. Will they? I don’t think so – too many are corrupted by their money from nothing:
The “Needs Bill,” while not as complete nor as correct as Freedom’s Vision, would represent a huge step in the right direction, but it will take millions of people demanding something like that for it to happen. My instinct is telling me that the coming massive “other events” have to play out first – sadly. Still, this video is remarkable in that we now have a few sitting Congressmen openly calling out the "Fed" as the root cause of the problem.
Initial Jobless Claims are once again over 400k, but it is the 350k mark that delineates the point below which real jobs are created. Numbers above that reflect an economy that is still shedding jobs:
Highlights The shortened Thanksgiving November 26 week clouds a 6,000 rise in initial jobless claims to 402,000. This ends three straight weeks under 400,000 and compares with Econoday expectations for 391,000 and against a 396,000 level in the prior week (revised from 393,000). The four-week average, which helps smooth out distortions in any one week, shows its first increase in five weeks, up a marginal 500 to 395,750 (prior week revised to 395,250).
Continuing claims in data for the November 19 week rose 35,000 to 3.740 million which is the highest level in two months. The four-week average is up 12,000 to 3.683 million. The unemployment rate for insured workers, resting at 2.9 percent in the prior five weeks, is up one tenth to 3.0 percent.
The Labor Department reports no special factors in the latest data but the shortened week for the initial claims period is likely to blunt market reaction. Demand for the safety of Treasuries is increasing very slightly immediately following the data.
Along the lines of bullshit, remember I am also calling it to the recent huge jump in Consumer Confidence. And not but a couple days later an independent source, the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, shows deterioration in Consumer Comfort. Did Consumer Confidence really jump, or was it a manufactured statistic? I say it was manufactured:
Highlights Consumer confidence in the U.S. was little changed last week from levels typically reached during past recessions. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index was minus 50.2 in the period ended November 27, after minus 50.1 the prior week. The gauge has been at minus 50 or worse for 10 of the past 11 weeks.
Two of the three components of the weekly comfort index deteriorated. The measure of Americans' views of the current state of the economy worsened to minus 88.5 last week from minus 87.2 in the prior period. The buying climate index fell to minus 49.4 from minus 48.8. The gauge of personal finances improved to minus 12.7, from minus 14.3.
The simultaneous injection of global liquidity (money), combined with the manufacturing of false statistics, and with the manufacturing of retail sales media hype, leads me to believe that a full court press was ordered to accomplish some political purpose (elections upcoming). While the President doesn’t control the “Fed” (it is the other way around), the central bankers may like their easily manipulated teleprompter reading empty suit puppet, and thus are working to keep him there. Yes, that is conspiracy theory for now, but the pieces of facts are pointing me in that direction.
The Manufacturing ISM rose for November. This was expected by me since it counts the dollar value of orders placed and Boeing received huge orders last month. Again, it is a point of national embarrassment that our manufacturing base is so small that a few aircraft orders swings these reports – of course you won’t hear that from Econocheerleader:
Highlights ISM new orders are turning higher in what is very good news for the manufacturing sector. The new orders index for November is up a very strong 4.3 points to 56.7, above 50 to indicate monthly growth and well above October. This index had been stuck at slightly sub-50 levels in prior months which now are forgotten. Helped by new orders, the ISM composite index is up 1.2 points to a 52.7 level that compares with the Econoday consensus for 51.5. November's level is the best since June.
Details show acceleration for export orders and for production. Delivery times are little changed while input prices slipped for a second month. Backlog orders are going down which is a negative that will hopefully be offset by the rise in new orders. Another disappointment is employment where hiring slowed, here too a factor that will hopefully reverse. Inventory readings are stable.
The stock market is getting a lift from today's report which hints at building strength and renewed leadership in manufacturing.
Renewed leadership in manufacturing? Wow, the manure is getting deep.
Construction Spending rose .8% in October, from my perspective just another measure of inflation as this is another metric measured in dollars. Just picture that chart of M1 and its parabolic rise, and you will see right through this statistic:
Highlights It may not be a lot (coming from a low base) but it is starting to look like the construction sector is incrementally adding to overall economic growth. Construction spending in October advanced 0.8 percent after rising an unrevised 0.2 percent in September. Analysts had forecast a 0.3 percent boost for October.
The October increase was led by a 3.4 percent boost in private residential outlays, following a 0.6 percent rise in September. Private nonresidential construction spending also posted a gain, rising 1.3 percent, following a 0.1 percent dip the month before. Public outlays declined 1.8 percent after a 0.3 percent increase the prior month.
On a year-ago basis, overall construction outlays improved to down 0.4 percent in October from down 0.6 percent in September.
Construction outlays have risen three months in a row and in six of the last seven months. The level of activity is still subdued but it now appears to be growing and adding to overall economic growth. It is not an "engine" like manufacturing but it is in better shape than even less than a year ago.
Year over year figures are down while money production figures are way higher. That means that in real terms Construction is WAY down.
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