Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Great Recession, Recovered

At 98.0 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production in July was 4.4 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for total industry moved up 0.4 percentage point to 79.3 percent, a rate 1.0 percentage point below its long-run (1972--2011) average.
Source: Federal Reserve

Statistically, the US has recovered from the Great Recession with regard to industrial production. So if we have all that unemployment, it must be service industry related, or industrial production is a whole lot more efficient, doing the same amount of work with less people.

That being the case, maybe equity profits and prices are not in a bubble after all.