The following chart shows declining manufacturing employment (in red) vs. increasing manufacturing output per person (in black).
Click to enlarge.
What do you get when you multiply them together?
Click to enlarge.
The correct answer is total manufacturing output.
Our judges would have also accepted exponential trend failure, one @#$%ed up economy, and/or holy @#$%. Unfortunately, this is not a game show. This is real life. Sigh.
Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart
St. Louis Fed: Manufacturing Sector: Output
Capacity utilization is 78.2, and doesn't look like it is going to go much higher.
ReplyDeleteEfficiency has improved to a point where we have overcapacity in many goods. It is one of the hazards of Capitalism. How do you fix that? One way is through advertising, convincing people they need things they don't. And if they can't afford what they want, you give them credit at usurious rates until they bankrupt themselves.
That pretty much brings us to today. Now what?
"How do you fix that?"
ReplyDeleteWorld Wars used to be very effective.
Used to be.
speaking of exponential trends, I just made this graph for DeLong:
ReplyDeletehttp://i.imgur.com/O5Eie.png
It is real GDP since 1970, with CBO's most recent projection to 2040.
Mr Slippery & Fritz_O,
ReplyDeleteHow do you fix that?
World Wars used to be very effective.
Asteroid.
Troy,
ReplyDeleteFusion powered cars by 2040!
(Or bust.)
so the utter destruction of manufacturing jobs has resulted in stagnation of manufacturing output. That too is part of the Bush Gang's Mission Accomplished
ReplyDeleteIn Hell's Kitchen (NYC),
ReplyDeleteMission @#$%ing Accomplished!
Sigh.