(What’s Left of) Our Economy: Little to Like Trade-Wise in the New U.S. GDP Report

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CCP Virus, coronavirus, COVID 19, digital services tax, exports, GDP, goods trade, gross domestic product, imports, inflation-adjusted growth, real GDP, services, services trade, trade deficit, Wuhan virus, {What's Left of) Our Economy

Today’s first official report on U.S. economic growth in the third quarter of this year was not only much worse than the final results revealed for the second quarter. It was also a near-mirror image of its predecessor estimate of the increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) in terms of its trade figures – and not in a good way.

Chiefly, during the second quarter, the economy grew at a strong clip (6.56 percent after inflation at an annual rate) while the real trade deficit practically stabilized versus the first quarter figure. In fact, this progress prompted me to venture that a pretty encouraging post-CCP Virus trade normal could be settling in for Americans.

But third quarter inflation-adjusted annualized growth was just two percent – the worst such performance since the pandemic-induced nosedive of last year’s second quarter – and the trade deficit increased sequentially by 5.40 percent. The $1.3117 trillion annualized total, moreover, was the fifth straight record quarterly high. And just for good measure this level also represented an all-time high for the real deficit as a share of price-adjusted GDP (6.74 percent).

The quarterly trade gap growth rate was still the second slowest of the current (still CCP Virus-distorted) economic recovery. But it’s much faster than the 1.50 percent increase between the second and third quarter. Worse, the prospect of stronger future GDP growth (assuming the pandemic resumes easing), and an untangling of the supply chain bottlenecks that have dramatically impacted both import and export flows, could well create a renewed trade shortfall surge in the coming quarters.

That possibility should concern more than just trade watchers, because that sequential increase in the deficit reduced third quarter growth for the total economy by 1.14 percentage points. So if the trade gap hadn’t increased at all, GDP would have expanded by 3.14 percent in real annualized terms. That’s still not spectacular, but it would have been an improvement of fully 57 percent. And it’s the biggest relative trade hit to growth since the third quarter of 2018, when the deficit’s increase sliced 1.66 percent points off of the 1.93 percent total growth figure – cutting it by 86.01 percent.

The only small bright spot in the new GDP report came in goods trade – which accounts for the vast bulk of U.S. trade flows. Its after-inflation annualized third quarter trade deficit of $1.4234 trillion was just 1.53 percent higher than the second quarter figure. And although it represented an acceleration ove the second quarter’s sequential increase of just 0.44 percent, the speed-up was far from alarming.

The big problem with the third quarter real trade figures came on the services side. The sector has suffered the most virus-related damage of any in the economy, but the plunge in its long-time surplus of 25 percent, to $114.3 billion, was stunning nonethless. The level was the lowest level since the $110.9 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2007, and the sequential drop by far the biggest ever on a relative basis– surpassing those during the Great Recession following the financial crisis of 2007-08, and even during the early CCP Virus and lockdowns period.

Services exports actually rose a bit sequentially – by 0.94 percent, to $614.7 billion. The total was the best of the pandemic era, but still 20.55 percent below pre-pandemic (fourth quarter, 2019) levels. Services imports, however, jumped by 9.59 percent. The new $500.4 billion total was also the highest of the CCP Virus period and 8.52 percent below that of the fourth quarter of 2019. In addition, the quarterly increase was the biggest of all time. (Detailed service trade figures only go back to 2002.)

If it lasts, the heavy concentration of the economy’s trade problems in services industries could provide the real deficit’s growth with some extra oomph.  The problem isn’t just that the virus’ resilience could keep the sector under continuing and unusual pressure, which would mean that it won’t be nearly as much of a trade winner as before 

It’s also that there seems to be only a slim chance that trade policy can make much of a difference – since so many countries view service sectors like telecommunications and finance (and now digital services) as crucial to their own futures, and want to maintain and increase their own players’ advantages.  That’s mainly why services trade liberalization has made so much less progress than goods trade liberalization. Indeed, the United States and five European countries have just managed to avoid a trade war fought over and with digital services taxes – which would have been new trade barriers. 

At this point, it seems, the nation will have its hands full simply preventing higher trade deficits from becoming major drags on growth.  Anyone awaiting significant reductions in the shortfall, even as a share of GDP, will likely need lots of patience.              

(What’s Left of) Our Economy: New U.S. GDP Data Still Show Trade Normalization — Pre-Delta

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CCP Virus, China, coronavirus, COVID 19, exports, GDP, goods trade, gross domestic product, growth, imports, inflation-adjusted growth, lockdowns, real growth, real trade deficit, services trade, Trade, trade deficit, vaccine mandates, Wuhan virus, {What's Left of) Our Economy

Today’s third (and final, for now) official read on U.S. economic growth in the second quarter confirms that at least as of June, the nation’s trade flows had made impressive progress toward returning to a pre-CCP Virus form of normality. The trouble still is, though, that these data cover a three-month stretch that came just before the highly infectious Delta variant of the virus arrived state-side in force, kicking off a new round of mandated and voluntary curbs on business and consumer behavior that will clearly impact the third quarter’s exports, imports, and trade balances – among other measures of economic performance.

The key sign of such trade normalization – the dramatically slowing rate at which the total U.S. deficit is increasing. It’s the same pattern that U.S. public health authorities spoke about early in the pandemic when they focused on “bending the curve.” The idea is that huge, powerful trends rarely reverse themselves overnight, or even quickly. When they’re harmful, the most realistic early aim policy- and other decision-makers can seek is slowing the rate at which they become worse.

And these latest second quarter numbers add to the evidence that trade deficit worsening has nearly stopped. Last month’s previous government estimate of the gross domestic product (GDP), its change, and how its individual components have grown or shrunk in inflation-adjusted terms (the terms most widely watched) revealed that the combined goods and services trade shortfall was only 1.71 percent wider ($1.2471 trillion at annual rates) than in the first quarter ($1.2261 trillion).

This morning, though, the overall trade gap was pegged at a smaller $1.2445 trillion – just 1.50 percent more than in the first quarter. The absolute level of the deficit remains enormous. In fact, as such, it’s still the biggest ever (and still the fourth straight record quarterly total). More important, at 6.43 percent the size of the total economy, it’s still the biggest trade gap ever in relative terms, too.

In addition, the second quarter’s inflation-adjusted overall trade deficit was a full 46.83 percent greater than the $847.6 billion annualized figure recorded in the fourth quarter of 2019 – the last full quarter before the CCP Virus began distorting U.S. trade flows by weakening the economy of enormous trade partner China.

But between the second and third quarters of last year, when the economy was rebounding strongly from its short but dizzying pandemic- and lockdown-induced recession, the real trade deficit skyrocketed by 31.81 percent. So the curve has not only been bent – it’s nearly flattened. And in price-adjusted terms, the government’s U.S. economic growth estimate for that April-through-June period this year came in this morning at 6.56 percent at annual rates – a bit better than last month’s 6.40 percent.

Slightly better trade deficit improvement coupled with slightly stronger economic growth is definitely good news, and it’s confirmed by the figures on the impact on growth of the trade deficit change. Last month, the Commerce Department (which compiles and reports the GDP statistics) announced that the constant dollar trade gap’s modest sequential increase over the first quarter level cut after-inflation U.S. growth by 0.24 percentage points. In other words, had the deficit simply remained the same, second quarter growth would have been 6.64 percent annualized, not 6.40 percent.

The new numbers show that the deficit’s smaller increase reduced second quarter growth by just 0.18 percentage points. So if the trade gap hadn’t worsened at all, real economic growth would have hit 6.74 percent, not 6.56 percent.

The manner in which the second quarter’s constant dollar trade gap improved over the second read was encouraging, too – although the pattern was not quite as positive as that reported last month.

That GDP release judged that total exports improved by 1.60 percent (to $2.298 trillion annualized) over the first quarter’s level, not by the originally reported 1.47 percent. Total imports, by contrast grew more slowly – by l.64 percent, not 1.90 percent (and reached $3.5457 trillion).

According to today’s GDP report, the total sequential export increase was a faster 1.85 percent (to $2.3042 trillion at annual rates), but the total import increase was as well (1.73 percent, to a slightly higher $3.5487 trillion).

Just as important, after-inflation total exports are still 9.76 percent below their immediate pre-virus (fourth quarter, 2019) levels, but total imports are 4.35 percent higher, and the latest second quarter figure is still a second straight quarterly record.

Goods trade accounts for the vast majority of U.S. trade flows and today’s second quarter revisions saw the longstanding constant dollar deficit level rise marginally, from $1.4014 trillion annualized to $1.4020 trillion. This figure remained the fourth straigh all-time high for this indicator, but was a mere 0.44 percent worse than its first quarter counterpart, and thus represented a major slowdown from the 20.40 percent spike seen during last year’s third quarter GDP boom.

For a change, even though the service sector has been the hardest hit by the virus by far, its new real trade surplus figures improved over the previous read – from $151.2 billion at annual rates, to $152.4 billion. Nonetheless, this still represented the weakest quarterly performance since the third quarter of 2010’s $161.7 billion – when the economy’s recovery from the 2007-2008 financial crisis and Great Recession remaine in early stages.

The rapid spread of the Delta variant and consequent business restrictions and renewed consumer caution are widely forecast to depress U.S. growth considerably (see, e.g., here) – which usually heralds a considerable reduction in the trade deficit. But even if economic form follows, the unpredictability of the pandemic and the responses it generates means that it’s anyone’s guess as to how long any particular trend will last.

(What’s Left of) Our Economy: U.S. Manufacturing’s Now Defying Hurricanes and Delta

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aircraft, aircraft parts, appliances, Boeing, CCP Virus, chemicals, computer and electronics products, coronavirus, COVID 19, Delta variant, electrical equipment, fabricated metal products, facemasks, Federal Reserve, furniture, Hurricane Ida, inflation-adjusted growth, machinery, manufacturing, masks, medical devices, medicines, oil refining, paper, personal protective equipment, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics, PPE, real output, semiconductor shortage, supply chain, travel, ventilators, Wuhan virus, {What's Left of) Our Economy

Domestic manufacturing’s done it again. Just as with the Labor Department’s August jobs report, the Federal Reserve’s new release on manufacturing output for the month shows that industry kept dodging whatever potholes the CCP Virus and its highly infectious Delta variant keep digging for the rest of the U.S. economy.

America-based manufacturers’ inflation-adjusted production grew by a meager 0.11 percent sequentially in August. But output was held down by facility closures forced by Hurricane Ida in the petrochemicals, plastics resins, and petroleum refining sectors. Overall revisions were mixed, but some upgrades and downgrades in individual major industries were pretty remarkable, as will be seen below.

The biggest winners in the new price-adjusted manufacturing production report were the small, catch-all “other manufacturing” category (2.42 percent); furniture and related products (up 2.07 percent); computer and electronics products (whose 1.21 percent output rise may have been a response to the worldwide shortage of semiconductors); paper (up 1.07 percent); and fabricated metal products (up 0.74 percent).

The biggest losers were electrical equipment, appliances, and components (down 1.16 percent); textiles products (down 0.81 percent on month); machinery (down 0.80 percent); and the big chemicals sector (down 0.49 percent).

Normally, the machinery results would be discouraging, since its products are used so widely both in the rest of manufacturing and also in big non-manufacturing industries like agriculture and construction. But its August dip followed a July jump of 3.31 percent – its best production improvement since January’s 4.63 percent – which was dramatically upgraded from the previously reported 1.91 percent.

The electrical equipment category followed a similar pattern. Its July real production results were revised all the way up from 2.31 percent to 3.95 percent – its best such performance since January, 2010, when the economy was still in its early bounce-back from the Great Recession that followed the global financial crisis.

Also enjoying a solid August were two narrower manufacturing categories that remain in the news due to the ongoing effects of the CCP Virus. Air travel has of course suffered throughout the pandemic-era, and aerospace manufacturing giant Boeing has been hit with numerous related manufacturing and safety problems (including some pre-dating the pandemic, like the grounding of the popular 737 Max jetliner).

Yet aircraft and parts production in constant dollars advanced by 0.34 percent in August, and in another major revision, July’s previously reported 2.78 percent increase is now pegged at 4.10 percent – its best such result since January’s 6.79 percent burst. And June’s downgraded 3.57 percent rise was bumped back up to 3.84 percent. As a result, aircraft and parts production is now 12.63 percent higher in after-inflation terms than in February, 2020 – the last full data month before the virus began significantly affecting the U.S. economy.

The pharmaceuticals and medicines sector (which includes vaccines) saw a real month-to-month production increase of 0.89 percent in August, and revisions were modest and mixed. These results left inflation-adjusted output 12.33 percent higher than its immediate pre-pandemic levels.

But August real production sank sequentially by 1.73 percent in the vital medical equipment and supplies sector – which includes virus-fighting items like face masks, protective gowns, and ventilators.

On the brighter side, July’s initially reported 1.71 percent constant dollar production rise was revised up to 2.42 percent. June’s dramatically downgraded 1.54 percent decrease was upgraded to a 0.13 percent drop, and May’s upwardly revised 1.86 percent real growth was downgraded only slightly – to 1.78 percent. Even so, on a price-adjusted basis, this crucial industry is just 2.66 percent larger than before the CCP Virus arrived in force.

Domestic industry still faces important headwinds of course – and not just from the possibility that Delta keeps worsening America’s public health and economy, and that approaching winter weather triggers a new wave of infections, hospitalizations, deaths, and restrictions. Those global supply chain snags are still with us, too.

But throughout the pandemic era, U.S.-based manufacturers have overcome obstacles just like this, and their consistent vigor indicates that it’s the pessimists about their future prospectswho now face the biggest burden of proof.

(What’s Left of) Our Economy: More Trade Normality Revealed in New GDP Figures – But for How Long?

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CCP Virus, coronavirus, COVID 19, Delta variant, exports, GDP, goods trade, gross domestic product, imports, inflation-adjusted growth, lockdowns, real exports, real GDP, real imports, real trade deficit, recession, recovery, services trade, Trade, trade deficit, Wuhan virus, {What's Left of) Our Economy

Last month, I reported that the trade highlights of the first official read on U.S. economic growth in the second quarter of this year showed signs that some form of normality was returning to the nation’s international trade flows after months of unprecedented pandemic-era fluctuations. This morning, the second government estimate of the second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) came out (next month we’ll see the final version – for now), and the signs of a new normality look even stronger.

Specifically, the sequential growth of America’s inflation-adjusted trade deficit during this period was even slower than the slowish rate presented in last month’s GDP release – and using the phrase “to a crawl” seems justified in describing the pace.

That initial estiimate revealed that the real trade gap’s quarterly widening had slowed from the sizzling 31.81 percent in the third quarter of last year, when the economy was roaring back from its brief but epic CCP Virus- and lockdown-induced crash dive to just 2.69 percent between this April and June (a strong growth period itself, but nothing compared with the initial recession rebound). Today, however, the after-inflation trade shortfall’s expansion came in at just 1.71 percent for the second quarter – when real growth itself clocked in at 6.40 percent on an annual basis, not the 6.35 percent estimated last month.

The new number for the second quarter’s price-adjusted trade deficit, $1.2471 billion annualized, remains astronomical by any reasonable standard. Not only is it still the biggest such figure in absolute terms. It’s the biggest such figure in relative terms – as a share of real GDP – where it still stands at 6.44 percent. And this revised trade deficit remains the fourth straight all-time high recorded. For some more perspective, the inflation-adjusted gap is also still 47.13 percent wider than where it stood in the fourth quarter of 2019 ($847.6 billion), just before the pandemic and its effect began weakening and distorting the economy.

More encouragingly, though, the new trade deficit result is a significant improvement over the $1.2590 trillion first reported. Also on the plus side, the after-inflation trade deficit’s sequential rise cut only 0.24 percentage points from the quarter’s 6.40 percent growth at an annual rate. That is, had the second quarter deficit stayed at its first quarter level, second quarter growth would have been 6.64 percent annualized – or 3.75 percent faster.

It all adds up to the trade deficit’s best such effect on real GDP change in absolute terms since the second quarter of 2020, when the deficit’s shrinkage prevented the nearly 36 percent pandemic-produced real GDP plunge from becoming slightly worse. By contrast, in the first quarter of this year, the inflation-adjusted trade shortfall’s increase cut the 6.14 percent annualized real growth figure by 1.56 percentage point. So had there been no sequential increase at all, that quarter’s price-adjusted growth would have been 7.70 percent at annual rates – a difference of fully 25.41 percent.

The manner in which the second quarter’s constant dollar trade gap improved over the initial read was good news as well, as after-inflation exports rose faster and their import counterparts climbed more slowly than reported last month.

Rather than growing by 1.47 percent sequentially during the second quarter, total after-inflation exports were judged to have advanced by 1.60 percent. At $2.2980 trillion annualized, though, they’re still 9.98 percent lower than in the fourth quarter of 2019 – the last full quarter before the CCP Virus’ arrival. As a result, the second quarter’s real export performance was an even greater improvement over the first quarter’s 0.73 percent dip than previously thought.

Combined goods and services imports were reported up by 1.64 percent between the first and second quarters, not 1.90 percent, as originally reported. This new figure also beat the first quarter’s 2.25 percent sequential real import increase.

At the same time, the new inflation-adjusted total import figure of $3.5547 trillion annualized still represents their second straight quarterly record, and such purchases from abroad are still 4.26 percent higher than their fourth quarter, 2019 level.

Turning to goods (the vast majority of U.S. trade flows), the second GDP read for the second quarter left standing their dubious record of a fourth straight all-time high trade deficit. But as with the overall trade deficit, the new figure of $1.4014 trillion annualized was a solid improvement from the previously reported $1.4610 trillion. And as a result, the second quarter number was only marginally (0.40 percent) worse than the first quarter figure, making clear a major slowdown in this indicator’s rise as well (from 20.40 percent during last year’s super-growth third quarter).

Unfortunately, the revised second quarter real service trade figures told a story that was especially gloomy even given this sector’s well known and disproportionate virus- and lockdown-induced woes. The long-running service trade surplus is now pegged at $149.5 billion for the April-through-June period. That’s a figure lower than the $151.2 billion previously reported, and the weakest quarterly result since the $161.7 billion recorded in the third quarter of 2010, when the recovery from the 2007-2008 financial crisis and Great Recession was in its earliest stages.

Also unfortunate – and frustrating: Whatever is shown in the final (for now) second quarter GDP report, the results will be pre-Delta variant. So although today’s data shows trade normalization to be even closer than previously thought, that next set could be of limited use at best in figuring out how long it’s going to last.

(What’s Left of) Our Economy: No Delta Effect on U.S. Manufacturing Growth In Sight. Yet.

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aerospace, aircraft, aircraft parts, appliances, automotive, Boeing, CCP Virus, coronavirus, COVID 19, Delta variant, electrical components, electrical equipment, fabricated metal products, Fed, Federal Reserve, inflation-adjusted growth, inflation-adjusted output, machinery, manufacturing, medical supplies, medicines, personal protective equipment, petroleum and coal products, pharmaceuticals, plastics, PPE, real growth, recovery, reopening, rubber, textiles, vaccines, {What's Left of) Our Economy

The after-inflation U.S. manufacturing production data reported today by the Federal Reserve revealed plenty of newsy developments. But my choice for biggest is the finding that, in price-adjusted terms, domestic manufacturers’ output finally nosed back above its last pre-CCP Virus (February, 2020) level.

The new number isn’t an all-time high – that came in December, 2007, just as the financial crisis was about to plunge the entire U.S. economy into its worst non-pandemic-related downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. As of this July, real manufacturing production is still 5.94 percent below that peak.

Measured in constant dollars, however, such output is now 1.15 percent greater than just before the virus arrived in the United States in force. Not much, and of course any Delta variant-prompted curbs on economic activity or extra caution in consumer behavior could wipe out this progress. But you know what they say about a journey of a thousand miles.

Had this milestone not been reached, I’d have led off this post by noting that although some really unusual seasonal factors in the volatile automotive sector definitely juiced the excellent July sequential output gain, U.S.-based industry outside automotive performed impressively during the month as well.

Specifically, as the Fed’s press release noted, the whopping 11.24 percent jump in the price-adjusted output of vehicles and parts contributed about half of overall manufacturing’s 1.39 percent growth. That automotive figure was the best monthly improvement since the 29.39 percent rocket ride the sector generated in July, 2020 – when the whole economy was staging its rebound from that spring’s deep but brief virus-induced recession. And that overall real on-month production advance was the best for manufacturing in general since the 3.39 percent achieved in March – earlier in the initial post-pandemic recovery.

But in July, the rest of domestic industry still expanded by a strong 0.70 percent after inflation – its best inflation-adjusted growth since the 3.31 percent also recorded in March.

The revisions in this morning’s Fed data for the entire manufacturing sector were mixed. June’s initially reported 0.05 percent decline is now judged to be a 0.10 percent increase, and April’s previously reported 0.39 percent drop now stands as a 0.21 percent decrease. But May’s last reported increase – upgraded slightly to a strong 0.92 percent – is now estimated at just 0.65 percent.

Looking at broad industry categories, the big real output July winners in domestic manufacturing’s ranks aside from automotive were electrical equipment, appliances, and components (up 2.31 percent); plastics and rubber products (up 2.02 percent); machinery (1.91 percent); the broad aerospace and miscellaneous transportation sector (think “Boeing”), which rose by 1.90 percent; textiles (up 1.67 percent); and miscellaneous durable goods, which includes but is hardly confined to many pandemic-related medical supplies (up 1.55 percent).

As I keep noting, good machinery growth is especially encouraging, since its goods are used both throughout manufacturing and the economy as a whole, and strong demand signals optimism among manufacturers about their future prospects – which tends to feed on itself and impart continued momentum to industry.

The list of significant losers was much shorter, with real fabricated metal products output 0.42 percent lower than June levels and petroleum and coal products shrinking by 0.60 percent.

Turning to narrower manufacturing categories that remain in the news, despite Boeing’s still serious manufacturing and safety problems, and ongoing CCP Virus-created weakness in air transport, inflation-adjusted production of aircraft and parts continued its strong recent run. June’s initially reported 5.24 percent monthly output surge was revised down to 3.57 percent. But that’s still excellent by any measure. And July saw production climb another 2.78 percent. As a result, real output in this sector is now 9.95 percent higher than it was just before the pandemic’s arrival in the United States in February, 2020.

Real output in the pharmaceuticals and medicines sector (which includes vaccines) grew by 0.77 percent sequentially in July, and its real output is now 11.35 percent greater than just before the pandemic. But those revisions!

June’s initially reported 0.89 percent increase is now judged to be a 0.34 percent decrease, and May’s previously downgraded 0.15 percent rise has now been upgraded all the way to 1.54 percent.

An even better July was registered by the vital medical equipment and supplies sector – which includes virus-fighting items like face masks, face masks, protective gowns, and ventilators. Monthly growth came in at 1.71 percent. But revisions here were puzzling, too.

June’s initially reported 0.99 percent sequential real production improvement is now seen as a major 1.54 percent falloff. And May’s monthly constant dollar growth, already upgraded from 0.19 percent to 1.18 percent, is now pegged at 1.86 percent.

I’m still optimistic about domestic manufacturing’s outlook, and that’s still based on domestic manufacturers’ own continued optimism – which as shown by the two major private sector monthly manufacturing surveys remained strong in July. (See here and here.)

But I also continue to view U.S. public health authorities’ judgment as suspect when it comes to the balance that needs to be struck between fighting the virus and keeping the economy satisfactorily open. So as long as new virus variants pose the threat of higher infection rates (though not at all necessarily of greater damage to Americans’ health), my own optimism has become more tempered.

(What’s Left of) Our Economy: Glimmers of Trade Normality’s Return?

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CCP Virus, China, coronavirus, COVID 19, Donald Trump, exports, GDP, goods trade, gross domestic product, imports, inflation-adjusted growth, real GDP, real trade deficit, recovery, services trade, tariffs, trade deficit, Wuhan virus, {What's Left of) Our Economy

Has the new post-CCP Virus trade normal finally started coming into view for the United States? One important reason for believing so came in today’s Commerce Department report on economic growth in the second quarter, and the main evidence can be summed up in these numbers: 31.81, 10.92, 8.24, and 2.69.

They represent the sequential rates of increase in the overall inflation-adjusted trade deficit starting with the third quarter of last year and ending with this year’s second quarter. And they show that even though real economic growth remained strong (albeit well below expectations) in the second quarter, the after-inflation trade gap’s size is stabilizing.

There’s no doubt that bottlenecks clogging transport systems all over the world due to the rapid recovery from CCP Virus-induced recessions deserve much of the credit. But given domestic manufacturing’s continued healthy growth despite the aforementioned supply chain and shortage issues, it’s hard to imagine that the Trump tariffs – especially on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods from China – haven’t played a big role, too.

But before diving into the gross domestic product (GDP) report’s trade highlights, it’s important to note that they reveal that the economy’s size in price-adjusted terms in the second quarter finally exceeded the scale reached in the fourth quarter of 2019 – the last fully pandemic-effect-free quarter. The nation’s total output of goods and services is only 0.81 percent greater, but it’s a start.

Also worth observing right away – the combined goods and services trade deficit of $1.2590 trillion at an annual rate was the fourth straight all-time record. That’s nearly 50 percent (48.54 percent, to be precise) higher than the fourth quarter, 2019 level of $847.6 billion, so obviously there’s a long way to go to pre-virus days by that standard. According to the more useful measure of the trade deficit’s size as a share of the GDP, the story’s only a little better. At the end of 2019, it stood at 4.41 percent, and in the second quarter of this year, it stood at 6.50 percent. So it’s up by 47.39 percent since the pandemic began significantly affecting the economy.

More progress toward normalization shows up in in the data on the impact of changes in the after-inflation trade shortfall on quarterly growth. For the second quarter of this year, the sequential growth in the real constant dollar trade deficit subtracted 0.44 percentage points from the 6.35 percent annualized expansion of the economy. In other words, had the real trade deficit not increased at all, real growth would have been 6.79 percent at annual rates, or 6.93 percent higher.

In the first quarter, the after-inflation trade deficit’s increase subtracted 1.56 percentage points from 6.14 percent real annualized growth. So that quarter’s after-inflation price-adjusted GDP rise would have been 7.70 percent at annual rates, or 25.41 percent greater. The final pre-pandemic numbers showed that a fourth quarter, 2019 inflation-adjusted trade deficit sequential decrease added 1.43 percentage points to 1.86 percent annualized growth.

Therefore, much ground needs to be made up here, too. At the same time, this particular set of data has been bouncing around a lot since former President Trump began his “trade wars” (in 2018), which led companies throughout the nation and world to adjust their production and especially import patterns dramatically in reactio not only to actual tariffs but to anticipated levies.

The new GDP release estimated that total after-inflation U.S. exports climbed by 1.47 percent sequentially during the second quarter – a reversal of the 0.73 percent quarterly decline during the previous three-month stretch. But at $2.2956 trillion annualized, they’re still 10.09 percent less than the fourth quarter, 2019 result.

Combined inflation-adjusted goods and services imports increased at a slower rate during the second quarter – 1.90 percent sequentially, versus 2.25 percent during the first quarter. But these U.S. purchases from abroad are 4.52 percent higher than just before the pandemic’s arrival. And the immediate pre-pandemic level had already been hit in the fourth quarter of last year.

Moreover, at $3.5547 trillion annualized, total real imports reached their second straight all-time quarterly high.

The constant dollar goods trade deficit level hit a new quarterly record, too – $1.4610 trillion at annual rates. Further, the all-time high was the fourth straight, and this trade gap is now 36.36 percent above the fourth quarter, 2019 pre-pandemic level.

At least this trade shortfall’s sequential growth rate has also been plummeting – from 20.40 percent in last year’s third quarter, when the economy was bursting out of the deep but short virus-and lockdown-induced recession, to 4.66 percent between the first and second quarters of this year.

The service sector continues to be a source of discouraging trade news according to the new GDP read. Its long-time after-inflation real surplus shrank by 6.20 percent between the first and second quarters, and in fact has fallen every quarter snce the second quarter of 2020. As a result, it’s currently 30.55 percent lower than it was in that final pre-CCP Virus fourth quarter of 2019.

Of course, as with the economy and life in general, U.S. trade’s return to normality still depends heavily on huge wildcards like the future of the CCP Virus Delta variant, and whether it will keep spreading fast and long enough to lead governments to reimpose shutdowns and lockdowns.  But the largely pre-Delta GDP numbers released today suggest that if this mutation stays under control, and nothing worse appears, America’s trade performance will keep approaching its pre-virus state.      

(What’s Left of) Our Economy: Automotive’s Still in the U.S. Manufacturing Growth Driver’s Seat

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aircraft, aluminum, appliances, automotive, CCP Virus, China, coal, coronavirus wuhan virus, COVID 19, Delta variant, electrical equipment, facemasks, Federal Reserve, industrial production, inflation-adjusted growth, inflation-adjusted output, infrastructure, lockdowns, machinery, manufacturing, masks, medical devices, metals, petroleum refining, pharmaceuticals, PPE, real growth, recovery, reopening, steel, stimulus, tariffs, Trump, vaccines, {What's Left of) Our Economy

Talk about annoying! There I was last Thursday morning, all set to dig into the new detailed Federal Reserve U.S. manufacturing production numbers (for June) in order to write up my usual same-day report, and guess what? None of the new tables was on-line! Fast forward to this morning: They’re finally up. (And here‘s the summary release.) So here we go with our deep dive into the results, which measure changes in inflation-adjusted manufacturing output.

The big takeaway is that, as with last month’s report for May, the semiconductor shortage-plagued automotive sector was the predominant influence. But there was a big difference. In May, domestic vehicles and parts makers managed to turn out enough product to boost the overall manufacturing production increase greatly. In June, a big automotive nosedive helped turn an increase for U.S.-based industry into a decrease.

The specifics: In May, the sequential automotive output burst (which has been revised up from 6.69 percent in real terms to 7.34 percent) helped push total manufacturing production for the month to 0.92 percent after inflation (a figure that’s also been upgraded – from last month’s initially reported already strong 0.89 percent). Without automotive, manufacturing’s constant dollar growth would have been just 0.47 percent.

In June, vehicle and parts production sank by an inflation-adjusted 6.62 percent , and dragged industry’s total performance into the negative (though by just 0.05 percent). Without the automotive crash, real manufacturing output would have risen by 0.40 percent.

Counting slightly negative revisions, through June, constant dollar U.S. manufacturing production in toto was 0.60 percent less than in February, 2020 – the economy’s last full pre-pandemic month.

Domestic industry’s big production winners in June were primary metals (a category that includes heavily tariffed steel and aluminum), which soared by 4.02 percent after inflation; the broad aerospace and miscellaneous transportation sector, which of course contains troubled Boeing aircraft, (more on which later), and which turned in 3.75 percent growth, its best such performance since January’s 5.62 percent pop; petroleum and coal products (up 1.36 percent); and miscellaneous durable goods, which includes but is far from limited to CCP Virus-related medical supplies (up 1.21 percent).

The biggest losers other than automotive? Inflation-adjusted production of electrical equipment, appliances, and components, which dropped sequentially by 1.73 percent in real terms; the tiny, remaining apparel and leather goods industry (1.44 percent); and the non-metallic minerals sector (1.07 percent).

Especially disappointing was the 0.55 percent monthly dip in machinery production, since this sector’s products are used so widely throughout the rest of manufacturing and in major parts of the economy outside manufacturing like construction and agriculture.

But in one of the biggest surprises of the June Fed data (though entirely consistent with the aforementioned broad aerospace sector), real output of aircraft and parts shot up by 5.24 percent – its best such performance since January’s 6.79 percent. It’s true that the May production decrease was revised from 1.47 percent to 2.61 percent. But with Boeing’s related and manufacturing and safety-related woes continuing to multiply, who would have expected that outcome?

And partly as a result of this two-month net gain, after-inflation aircraft and parts output as of June is 7.83 percent higher in real terms than in pre-pandemicky February, 2020 – a much faster growth rate than for manufacturing as a whole.

The big pharmaceuticals and medicines sector (which includes vaccines) registered a similar pattern of results, although with much smaller swings. May’s originally reported 0.22 percent constant dollar output improvement was revised down to 0.15 percent. But June saw a 0.89 percent rise, which brought price-adjusted production in this group of industries to 9.33 percent greater than just before the pandemic.

Some good news was also generated by the vital medical equipment and supplies sector – which includes virus-fighting items like face masks, face masks, protective gowns, and ventilators. Its monthly May growth was upgraded all the way up from the initially reported 0.19 percent to 1.18 percent. And that little spurt was followed by 0.99 percent growth in June.

Yet despite this acceleration, this sector is still a mere 2.27 percent bigger in real terms than in February, 2020, meaning that Americans had better hope that new pandemic isn’t right around the corner, that the Delta variant of the CCP Virus doesn’t result in a near-equivalent, or that foreign suppliers of such gear will be a lot more generous than in 2020.

As for manufacturing as a whole, the outlook seems as cloudy as ever to me. Vast amounts of stimulus are still being pumped into the U.S. economy, which continues to reopen and overwhelmingly stay open. That should translate into strong growth and robust demand for manufactured goods. The Trump tariffs are still pricing huge numbers of Chinese goods out of the U.S. market. And the shortage of automotive semiconductors may actually be easing.

But the spread of the Delta variant has spurred fears of a new wave of local and even wider American lockdowns. This CCP Virus mutation is already spurring sweeping economic curbs in many key U.S. export markets. Progress in Washington on an infrastructure bill seems stalled. And for what they’re worth (often hard to know), estimates of U.S. growth rates keep coming down, and were falling even before Delta emerged as a major potential problem. (See, e.g., here.)

I’m still most impressed, though, by the still lofty levels of optimism (see, e.g., here)  expressed by U.S. manufacturers themselves when they respond to surveys such as those sent out by the regional Federal Reserve banks (which give us the most recent looks). Since they’re playing with their own, rather than “other people’s money,” keep counting me as a domestic manufacturing bull.

(What’s Left of) Our Economy: New GDP Figures Show Slower U.S. Trade Normalization

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CCP Virus, coronavirus, COVID 19, GDP, gross domestic product, inflation-adjusted growth, lockdowns, real GDP, real trade deficit, reopening, semiconductor shortage, trade deficit, West Coast ports, Wuhan virus, {What's Left of) Our Economy

When the the U.S. government’s first read on the economy’s growth during the first quarter of this year came out, I wrote that the trade highlights showed some tentative signs of normalization for CCP Virus-distorted flows of exports, imports, and for the resulting trade balances.

As of this morning, we have the second report on change between January and March in the gross domestic product (GDP), and the normalization trend still looks intact – but in weakened form.

The new data judged that first quarter growth in inflation-adjusted terms at an annual rate was a bit faster than previously estimated – 6.25 percent versus 6.24 percent. Yet the real combined goods and services trade deficit of $1.1939 billion annualized is 1.57 percent bigger than the quarterly record $1.1755 trillion reported a month ago.

As a result, the overall deficit a represented a 6.41 percent worsening from the fourth quarter figure, as opposed to the 4.77 percent increase previously reported. That’s still much lower than the 10.12 percent rise from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. And it’s orders of magnitude less than the 31.47 percent recorded during the spectacularly high growth second to third quarter period. But it’s definitely a step backward.

Ditto for the impact on after-inflation economic growth of the overall trade deficit’s increase. The initial read for the second quarter reported that the gap’s widening subtracted 0.87 percentage points from the 6.24 percent annualized total real GDP growth figure. In other words, constant dollar GDP growth would have been 13.94 percent greater had the real trade deficit not climbed at all.

Now the growth-killing impact of the trade shortfall’s expansion is pegged at 1.25 percentage points from 6.25 percent annualized price-adjusted economic growth. So that real GDP growth would have been 20 percent faster had the deficit not worsened. As with the increase in the deficit itself, the impact on growth of the deficit’s rise is smaller than it was in the fourth quarter – when it hit 35.92 percent for the worse, a multi-decade high. But the improvement is now a good deal smaller than first thought.

On a static basis, however, the inflation-adjusted adjusted total trade deficit’s share of the real economy keeps surging. This morning, it came in at 6.25 percent – as opposed to the 6.16 percent first reported. The fourth quarter level was only 5.97 percent and the third quarter’s just 5.48 percent.

Consequently, the real trade deficit is still bigger relative to the whole economy than during the fourth quarter of 2005, when it hit 6.10 percent. That incidentally was the previous record, and that time is of course known as the bubble decade – after which the financial crisis and Great Recession quickly followed.

Moreover, although signs of overall economic normalization keep mushrooming (thanks, e.g., to the spread of CCP Virus immunity and continued stimulus spending), trade flows may still be in for months more of pandemic-related distortions. Indeed, they may worsen.

After all, on top of all the stimulus the economy will keep receiving for the foreseeable future, two major bottlenecks crimping growth are easing. Specifically, progress is now being reported not only in clearing West Coast ports congestion, but in alleviating the global semiconductor shortage (albeit partly because the production cuts it forced on customers are cutting their demand).

It’s true that these bottlenecks – which have stemmed largely from the sudden stop-start nature of transitions from lockdowns to reopenings – have affected both U.S. exports and imports. But with the United States still a strongly consumer-dominated economy, and almost certain to recover much faster than many of its leading trade partners (many of which will therefore be relying on generating their own trade surpluses for growth more than ever), it’s all too easy to see how its trade deficits will either keep setting records or at least stay at their current lofty levels well into the next year.

(What’s Left of) Our Economy: Normalizing Signals from the New U.S. Manufacturing Growth Data?

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aerospace, aircraft, automotive, Boeing, CCP Virus, China, coronavirus, COVID 19, Covid relief, Federal Reserve, inflation-adjusted growth, infrastructure, machinery, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, real growth, semiconductor shortage, stimulus package, tariffs, vaccines, Wuhan virus, {What's Left of) Our Economy

Do the April data just released by the Federal Reserve show that U.S. manufacturing output is settling into a post-CCP Virus normal? Despite achieving solid (0.42 percent) month-to-month growth in real terms, I’m not so sure. That’s mainly because although one of the big drags on domestic industry’s recent performance that resulted from weather rather than economic fundamentals is clearly past us, the impact continues of similar, likely temporary, developments that economists call “exogenous shocks.” And although plainly temporary, they may turn out to be pretty long-lasting.

The drag that’s out of the way is the amazingly harsh winter weather that crippled state economies in the south central states. Even so, the Fed now estimates the damage produced on a nation-wide basis as having been even worse than initially judged. The monthly plunge in February after-inflation manufacturing production keyed by the blizzards and power outages is now pegged at 4.12 percent – down from the original -3.12 percent and last month’s -3.72 percent. That’s still the wors monthly performance since April’s 15.83 percent nosedive, during the height of the pandemic and the depths of the recession.

The silver lining is that the March rebound first judged to be 2.79 percent is now believed to have been 3.22 percent.

So that 0.42 percent sequential increase in price-adjusted manufacturing production for April could be interpreted as an end to the winter aftershocks period. Except the Fed is now telling us that a new problem – the recent global semiconductor shortage – depressed U.S. automotive output so greatly last month (by 4.28 percent), that without such disruption, total constant dollar factory production would have been nearly twice as strong (0.75 percent). Moreover, the microchip shortage shows no sign of ending any time soon. And don’t forget about those still congested West Coast ports! 

According to the Fed, moreover, U.S.-based industry seems to be dealing with another distinctly non-normal situation – those “supply chain difficulties” generated by the same dramatic reopening of the economy that are distorting the inflation figures. Much more government money is bound to be injected into the economy on top of the already enormous virus relief and stimulus funds that have already been provided (and are still working their way through the system), So manufacturers and other businesses will surely continue facing various bottlenecks as they all try to keep up with the new customer demand all at once. Of course, complicating matters still further – and prolonging the return to normality – is that very massive government spending, which all else equal will keep propping up that demand and manufacturing and other output.

Thanks to the April advance and the cumulative impact of the revisions, domestic manufacturing production is now up 23.27 percent after inflation from its low last April, and is now back to within 1.42 percent of its last pre-pandemic reading in February, 2020.

One sign for manufacturing and the rest of the economy that remained genuinely bullish in April was the 0.65 percent sequential output growth of the big machinery sector – whose products are used extensively not only throughout the rest of manufacturing, but in big non-manufacturing sectors like construction and agriculture. That April increase was much smaller than March’s 3.55 percent surge – the best such performance since July’s 5.56 percent jump. But the March result was upgraded from an initially eported 2.87 percent. And in inflation-adjusted terms, the machinery sector is now 3.72 percent bigger than in February, 2020, just before the pandemic arrived.

Other significant April manufacturing production winners were the big chemical industry (up 3.17 percent on month, but still recovering from the huge 8.64 percent sequential output drop resulting mainly from those winter storms), primary metals (whose 1.68 percent monthly improvement followed a 2.20 percent rise that’s still left the sector 3.11 percent smaller in real terms than just before the pandemic), and petroleum and coal products (1.57 percent – but in a chemicals-like recovery situation).

The biggest losers were miscellaneous non-durable goods (off 1.08 percent) and plastics and rubber products (down 0.83 percent).

Although reopening measures in the United States and around the world are reviving air travel, the April Fed report shows that Boeing’s continuing production troubles may have again undercut growth in the big American aerospace industry. Price-adjusted output in aircraft and parts dipped by 0.23 sequentially last month – the first such decrease since December’s 1.43 percent. And March’s initially reported 4.09 percent increase has been downwardly revised all the way to 1.92 percent. Nonetheless, after inflation, aircraft and parts production is still up 4.98 percent from its final pre-CCP Virus levels.

Another big industry that should be benefitting from reopening-related headwinds – pharmaceuticals and medicines – also delivered a disappointing performance in April, especially since it includes vaccines. Real output rose by just 0.33 percent on month, and March’s initially reported 2.90 percent rise was trimmed back to 2.87 percent. In addition, previous and dramatic downward revisions for January and February were downgraded on net yet again – though modestly. Consequently, inflation-adjusted production in the sector has grown by 5.95 percent during the pandemic.

Growth in the vital medical equipment and supplies sector – which includes virus-fighting items like face masks, face masks, protective gowns, and ventilators – remained nothing to write about either. April’s real growth was a so-so (0.42 percent). And although March’s initially estimated 0.61 percent constant dollar output increase got a nice upgrade to 1.11 percent, February’s results – which had been revised up from a 0.56 percent decline to a 0.44 percent drop – was revised back down to a 0.64 percent decrease. Consequently, real output here is just 0.56 percent higher than in that final pre-CCP Virus month of February, 2020, despite all the national talk of the need to improve America’s health security.

An optimistic outlook for domestic manufacturing still seems justified for me, if only because government-fueled growth and reopening still seem to be the most powerful influences on the entire economy, and President Biden has still kept in place the sweeping Trump tariffs are still pricing hundreds of billions of dollars of manufactured goods from China out of the U.S. market. That latest Boeing glitch seems to have been resolved. The need for more protective medical equipment and more vaccines (especially abroad) certainly haven’t gone away for good . And maybe a serious infrastructure rebuild and expansion is on the way. 

But just as a big enough number of anecdotes can deserve being seen as a trend, a big enough number of temporary disruptions can deserve being seen as a new, and more difficult, normal.

(What’s Left of) Our Economy: New U.S. GDP Figures Report Record – and Virus-Distorted – Trade Deficits

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CCP Virus, Commerce Department, coronavirus, COVID 19, Donald Trump, exports, GDP, goods trade, gross domestic product, imports, inflation-adjusted growth, real GDP, real trade deficit, recession, recovery, services trade, Trade, trade deficit, {What's Left of) Our Economy

Because the entire U.S. economy has been so distorted by sudden stop-start nature of the CCP Virus and subsequent lockdowns and reopenings, and massive government stimulus measures, I’ve been hesitant to draw firm conclusions about the messages sent by the various reports on the economy’s performance issued by the government since the pandemic arrived.

I’m still hesitant, but this morning’s Commerce Department report on the economy’s growth in the first quarter of this year seemed especially interesting due to the signs it contained that America’s trade flows might be returning to some semblance of normality. The signs consist of quarter-to-quarter changes in deficits, exports, and imports that are decidedly moderating.

To start, that conclusion is also consistent with the moderating of changes in economic growth itself. Measured in inflation-adjusted terms, this intiial read on America’s gross domestic product (GDP – the total of goods and services turned out by the nation) revealed growth of 6.24 percent at an annual rate in the first quarter. By the standards of normal times recent decades, this is a blistering pace. In fact, leaving out the pandemic period, it was the best such performance since the 6.80 percent achieved in the third quarter of 2003.

But by pandemic standards, although it’s a speed up from the 4.26 percent registered in the fourth quarter of last year, it’s not that much of a speed up, especially given how much stimulus has been poured into the economy. And compared with the 29.91 percent real GDP pop in last year’s third quarter, however, it’s definitely smallish beans.

The trade figures comprising part of this GDP report generally followed suit. For example, the first quarter’s after-inflation trade deficit of $1.1755 trillion was an all-time quarterly record both in absolute terms, and more important, as a share of the whole economy (6.16 percent). The last time the trade deficit’s relative size was remotely that big was during the fourth quarter of 2005 (6.10 percent) – during a time now known as the bubble decade that preceded the financial crisis and Great Recession of 2007-2009.

Yet the deficit’s quarter-to-quarter growth rate of 4.77 percent was considerably slower than the fourth quarter’s 10.12 percent, and the record (by a long shot) 31.47 percent recorded during that extraordinarily high growth third quarter.

The same pattern is unfolding so far with the trade gap in goods. At $1.3463 trillion annualized it marked the third straight quarterly record in absolute terms. But the sequential growth rate of 3.46 percent was well off quarterly the rate of 6.94 percent in the fourth quarter, much less the 21.58 percent in the third quarter.

Trade in services – the part of the national and global economies hardest hit by the virus and the lockdowns – has taken less of a straight line route in terms of quarterly change, but moderation can be seen here, too. The quarterly surplus of $165.1 million was the smallest recorded since the $1.57 million during the third quarter of 2009 – when the economy was just beginning to crawl out of the Great Recession.

The quarterly shrinkage of 4.95 percent was, though, As less than a third as great as the fourth quarter’s 17.29 percent – though that nosedive was greater than the third quarter’s 10.48 percent.

Approaching normality was also indicated by another trade-related figure – the degree to which these changes in the deficit have affected overall growth. During the first quarter of this year, the sequential rise of the price-adjusted trade deficit subtracted 0.87 percentage points from annualized real GDP growth figure, which hit 6.24 percent. So that trade shortfall increase affected 13.94 percent of the growth figure (for the worse).

As discouraging as that result was, however, the trade effect was much smaller than in the fourth quarter of last year. Then, the big surge in the inflation-adjusted trade gap cut 1.53 percentage points from real GDP growth, which hit 4.26 percent annualized. In other words, the trade deficit affected 35.92 percent of the growth figure (again for the worse).

The trade affect was actually smaller in relative terms during the record GDP growth third quarter – reducing real GDP expansion, which neared 30 percent at annual rates, by 3.21 percentage points.

But for some context, the last time the trade hit to real economic growth was seen in this statistical neighborhood was the third quarter of 1982, when dragged down a sequential after-inflation contraction of 1.53 percent by 3.22 percentage points. That is, without the increase in the trade deficit, the overall economy would have grown. And the all-time record was set way back in the fourth quarter of 1947 – when a rising trade shortfall cut 4.23 percentage points out of a growth rate that his 6.25 percent annualized.

Larger trade effects have been seen occasionally when a quarterly improvement in the deficit bolstered growth. But these instances came during deep downturns – as in the second quarter of 1980 and the first quarter of 1975.

Nevertheless, a case can be made that the CCP Virus related distortions of the economy and U.S. trade flows still have a ways to go. After all, more massive government stimulus seems to be coming, and new pandemic waves are washing over major portions of Europe and Asia, which of course are important American export markets. And until the roller coaster ride is over, assessing the true state of the economy and trade flows will remain a serious challenge.

Moreover, even if the distortions are indeed over, these particular trade figures are of little help in assessing the ongoing impact of the Trump trade policy revolution engineered from 2017 to last year.  Luckily, the next set of needed details is due out next Tuesday, when the March monthly trade report is slated to be released.