General Motors reported today very strong December sales, up 10 percent. This was well above expectations. Analysts polled by Reuters expected GM's December U.S. sales to increase by about 3.5 percent from a year earlier.
Ford Motor also beat forecasts, indicating that 2016 results will beat a record high set in 2015.
This is not anything close to what a recession looks like.
It's another data point that Austrian-lites will somehow have to twist into their odd economic view that the Fed can not manipulate the economy into a boom phase.
-RW
Real GDP growth under 2% each of the past two years. No Real GDP growth of over 3% in 11 years.
ReplyDeleteThe Fed manipulated "boom" seems more like a whimper in those terms.
This boom phase has been here for a while now. That's the point. Seven years after the last recession ended, Dow approaching 20,000, and the Fed still has interest rates pegged well below one percent. Check out the Fed funds rate divided by the 10 year Treasury rate and compare that to the past. Something broke in 2008 and stayed broken.
ReplyDeleteHow many cars would be sold at 2007 interest rates with 2017 prices?
ReplyDelete