Confusion Everywhere!

By Brian Gale, president and majority owner, I.D. Images

Within the last week, the following statements have appeared in The Wall Street Journal:
"Retail sales declined in June while more goods piled up on shelves."
"Inventory remains low compared with sales." (These two appeared in the same article!)
"Fed cautious about recovery."
"Jobless claims decline."

All this data leads to ask what is really going on in the overall economy. I spent a day this week visiting a customer and end user in the southeast US. Their business is up significantly this year. However — and a big however — they are doing it with 1 less day of production. When things were slow, they cut back on their production hours. They are now producing more product with 1 less day of production than they did during the glory days of 2007 and 2008.