US Raw Steel Production Rose 1.1% Last Week

US raw steel production rose 1.1 percent last week as mills operated at an ACUR of 75.9 percent. In the corresponding week last year mills operated at an ACUR of 72.1 percent. On the year mills have produced approx. 37,000,000 tons at an ACUR of 71.9 percent down from the approx. 37,300,000 tons produced last year at an ACUR of 71.6 percent.

The Institute for Supply Management May 2016 Manufacturing ISM Report on Business:

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in May for the third consecutive month while the overall economy grew for the 84th consecutive month, say the nation’s supply executives in the latest report.”

The May PMI registered 51.3 percent an increase of 0.5 percentage point from the April reading of 50.8 percent…Manufacturing registered growth in May for the third consecutive month as 14 of our 18 industries reported an increase in new orders in May.”

Bradley J. Holcomb, CPSM, CPSD,
Chair of the Institute for Supply Management Manufacturing Business Survey Committee

The Midwest Economy Index (MEI) Remains Unchanged

The Midwest Economy Index (MEI) was released Tuesday and reports the MEI was unchanged in April. April’s value for the relative MEI suggests that Midwest economic growth was moderately higher than what would be suggested by the growth rate of the national economy.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas May Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey Shows Declined Activity

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas released its May Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey which showed Texas factory activity declined in May after two months of increases. The Production Index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions fell to its lowest reading in a year.

Employment

US hiring slowed dramatically in May and unemployment fell as people dropped out of the workforce, a bleak picture for Federal Reserve officials as they prepare to debate increasing short-term interest rates this month. 38,000 non-farm jobs were created against an estimate of 160,000 and the jobless rate fell to 4.7 percent. Naturally, the Obama administration will tell us how good things are…

Excerpts from a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by William McGurn:

I am not a crook.”

In 1973 the sitting president, Richard Nixon, used these words at a news conference to deny allegations he had profited off his public service.

In 2016 an aspiring president, Hillary Clinton, as part of her campaign for the White House, is advancing an aggressive variant of the Nixon defense. It runs like this: Anything that isn’t criminal is permissible-and therefore none of it should be disqualifying for the Oval Office.

This has become the go-to argument for Team Clinton these days. Thus Maryland Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings was quick out of the box last week when the State Department’s inspector general released a damning report finding that then Secretary of State Clinton had defied the department’s rules by setting up her private email server. Mr. Cummings, ABC News said, pointed out that the inspector general’s report “does not accuse Clinton of any crime.” The implication is that it therefore doesn’t matter.

Chalk it up as one legacy of the first Clinton presidency, which has prepared the way for the second. Because by refusing to resign after being caught in an affair with an intern 27 years his junior, President Bill Clinton successfully lowered the bar for would-be President Hillary…In this brave new world, even perjury turned out not to be a crime when Bill Clinton did it, because it was about sex. Mr. Clinton’s argument was that because sex between two consenting adults was not a crime, it was nobody’s business but his and his family’s.

Today, the no crime-no foul defense defines the case for Mrs. Clinton. And she and her defenders have been invoking it for years:

There were no criminal violations here.”

The speaker was Clinton budget director Leon Panetta in July 1993, putting forward the White House party line on the firing of seven people in the travel office, in which some had detected Hillary’s hand. Three years later a memo would surface confirming Mrs. Clinton as the force behind the sackings.

As far as even a breath of criminal activity by either the president and the first lady, it will turn out to be nothing at all.”

This time it was White House counsel Lloyd Cutler in March 1994, dismissing the inquiry into the Whitewater land deal. The remark came at the same time Mrs. Clinton was explaining to the press that she hadn’t been forthcoming about the details because she had been trying to protect her family’s privacy.

Those motives for helping Webb Hubbell, you can criticize or not, but they’re not criminal.”

This was 1998 and it was now the turn of Lanny Davis, a former White House special counsel. Mr. Davis was arguing that the hundreds of thousands in payments that Mrs. Clinton’s former law partner had received from Clinton associates after he’d resigned from the Justice Department was not hush money to keep him quiet.

No evidence of a crime.”
“Nothing criminal.”
“No criminal activity.”

How frequently these words pop up when the subject of discussion is some action by Mrs. Clinton.

Now we have the FBI investigation into her private email server. When the New York Times reported the news last year, the Clinton Campaign haggled over the Times’ use of-you guessed it…the word “criminal” the Times had used to describe the investigation. The Times issued a correction…It used to be, before the Clintons first moved into the White House, that having no criminal conviction was something that kept you out of prison. But the way Mrs. Clinton and her defenders talk, it’s almost as though it should make her president.”

It is very true…and I want to vomit at the thought of this “crooked Hillary” person as President of the United States.

Another Holdout Hops on the Trump Train

House Speaker Paul Ryan stated in an opinion piece in a Wisconsin newspaper that he would be voting for Donald J. Trump…another holdout hops on the Trump Train!

Dusseldorf Plot Foiled

Germany has arrested 3 Syrian refugees believed to be Islamic state members, for plotting a terrorist attack on Dusseldorf. Trump wants to stop any Muslim who cannot be properly vetted, from entering the United States. In light of what is happening in Europe, we would be negligent (and just plain stupid) if we do not proceed down this path.

“MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN”

Have a great weekend…. God bless America!

Buy American made products whenever you can, it’s good for you, good for your friends and neighbors and good for our country.

If you are hiring…try to hire a veteran…. they are loyal, disciplined, hardworking…and they deserve our support.

Remember these tidbits as the election cycle grinds on:

  • Fast & Furious-Americans killed by guns supplied to the drug cartels…by the Department of Justice-Eric Holder presiding. The president was clueless. No one held accountable
  • Benghazi: Four Americans killed in an assault described as the result of a viral video. This was proved to be a false narrative. This was in fact, a planned act of terror. The president was clueless. No one even knows where he was as this went down. No one held accountable
  • “At this point, what difference does it make?” Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State
  • The IRS targeting of conservative groups and individuals. No one held accountable, Lois Lerner is on paid vacation and has refused to testify. The president was clueless. No one held accountable
  • Hillary using a private server for correspondence during her term as Secretary of State against the orders of the president. She thought “it would be more convenient…” Though the records were due when she left office, they were not submitted, subpoenas were issued, which she ignored for two years. Finally, she released 30,000 of some 60,000 alleged emails then she deleted the rest of the emails and will NOT turn over the server for investigation.