Day after day investors are treated to 5-Star Morningstar managers, so-called “strategists”, economissseds with entire religions on the line, and circus barkers who proclaim that: a) The US is decoupled from the rest of the world; and/or b) The US is the cleanest dirty shirt; an/or c) There are no indications that the US economy is near a recession. Here are four simple charts – from, just today’s data – that destroy this glass half full and rose-colored ignorance of reality…
1) Business Inventories-to-Sales are at recesssion-inducing levels…
1a) Sidenote 1 – Wholesale Inventories relative to sales have NEVER been higher…
1b) Sidenote 2 – here is why that is a problem…
2) Industrial Production is – as would expeted given the inventories – rolling over into recession territory…
2a) Sidenote – as Empire Fed confirmed this morning for August – inventories are collapsing (and along with that Q3 GDP)…
3) Retail Sales is not supportive of anything but a looming recession…
And finally,
4) The last 6 times Auto Assemblies collapsed at this rate, the US was in recession…
So – still think The US is “safe” – because stocks are certainly not priced for anything other than a hockey-stick of hope in earnings rebounds, let alone a collapse into recession.
Charts: Bloomberg
Source: Destroying The “There Are No Signs Of An Imminent Recession” Meme In 4 Charts | Zero Hedge
