US Raw Steel Production Retreated Last Week

US Raw Steel Production Retreated Last Week

US raw steel production retreated 1.2 percent last week as mills operated at an ACUR of 73.9 percent. In the corresponding week last year mills operated at an ACUR of 72.1 percent. Thus far this year mills have produced approx. 33,000,000 tons at an ACUR of 71.6 percent down from approx. 34,000,000 tons produced in the like period last year, also at an ACUR of 71.6 percent.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York May 2016 Empire State Manufacturing Survey Indicates Decline

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released its May 2016 Empire State Manufacturing Survey which indicated that business activity declined for New York manufacturers. The general business conditions index turned negative, the new orders and shipments indexes also fell. Inventory levels were lower and delivery times shorter.

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Manufacturing Business Outlook May 2016 Unchanged

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released its Manufacturing Business Outlook for May 2016 and reports the indicator for general activity was essentially unchanged in May, remaining slightly negative. Other broad indicators also reflected general weakness in business conditions.

Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) Rose to 0+.10 in April

Led by improvements in production related indicators, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) rose to 0+.10 in April from March. All four of the broad categories of indicators that make up the index increased from March. The index’s three month moving average, however, (CFNAI-MA3) decreased to -0.22 in April from -0.18 in March. April’s CFNAI-MA3 suggests that growth in economic activity was somewhat below its historical trend. Keep an eye on the CFNAI-MA3, hopefully it will trend into positive territory as the CFNAI index has.

Did you hear about Burlington College?

Burlington College, a tiny Vermont liberal arts school, is shutting down because of financial problems associated with a property acquisition overseen by Bernie Sanders’s wife Jane. In its formal statement announcing its closure, the school cited the “crushing weight” of debt it took on in a 2010 purchase of more than 30 acres from the local Catholic archdiocese.

Mrs. Sanders was the college’s president at the time. The major investment didn’t bear fruit in terms of drawing more students and bringing in higher tuition revenue. She resigned in 2011. She was also set to receive $200,785 in severance between October 2011 and October 2013. She got hers. The students and faculty? Not so much… WSJ 5/17/16

DeBlasio’s Fundraising Under Investigation

Bill DeBlasio, Mayor of New York, is a crook. He is being investigated for shady fundraising activities, for police corruption and several city, state and federal agencies are examining the DeBlasio administration’s role in the lifting of property restrictions on a Manhattan nursing home. The deal allowed a company, whose leadership team includes a donor to the mayor, to make an apparent $72 million profit off its sale. The mayor has said the company misled the city and he has denied knowing about the deal. Right…

Billary

Hillary says, if elected …

I will put my husband in charge of revitalizing the economy because, you know, he knows how to do it.”

That is pure bullshit. If it weren’t for the policies instituted through the two terms of Ronald Reagan the picture would have been totally different. And not in a better way.

According to a financial disclosure form released by the Clinton campaign on Tuesday, Bill and Hillary have earned $6.7 million from paid speeches since the beginning of 2015. Income inequality anyone? These two have been gaming the system for years and not in a small way. They are always on the edge of legal and are never held accountable. Nothing is being said of their illegal loan to a for profit business which was revealed last week. They continue to get away with their shenanigans. (Any one of us would already be in prison. How does this happen?)

On Socialism …

Do you see what socialism has done to Venezuela? The country is about to implode, there is no more money for the socialists because they have given it all away. I suspect the elites have got their share of stolen cash though. Are you feeling the Bern? See below…

From an opinion article in the WSJ 5/17/16:

“What is Socialism Dad”

….I told him it’s an economic system in which the government seizes and runs industries, sets prices for goods, and otherwise dictates what you can and cannot do with your money and therefore, your life. He received my answer with the abstracted interest you’d expect if I had been describing atmospheric conditions on Uranus.”

Here’s what I wish I would have said; Socialism is a mental poison that leads to human misery of the sort you see in these wrenching pictures.” They had been reading a story by Nick Casey about the state of medicine in Venezuela in Sunday’s New York Times. As they scrolled through the images of filthy operating rooms, broken incubators and desperate patients lying in pools of blood, dying for lack of such basics as antibiotics.

When Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died in 2013, an obscure parliamentarian tweeted, “Thanks Hugo Chavez for showing that the poor matter and wealth can be shared. He made massive contributions to Venezuela and a very wide world.

That parliamentarian was Jeremy Corbyn, now leader of the Labour Party…”In terms of healthcare, in terms of education, in terms of land reform…nobody denies the Sandinistas are making significant progress in those areas” said then Mayor Bernie Sanders in 1985. “And I think people understand that and I think the people of Nicaragua, the poor people, respect that.”

But the point isn’t what Mr. Sanders may have thought of the Sandinistas in the 1980’s or the Chavistas in the past decade. It’s that the type of socialism that the senator espouses-$18 trillion in additional government spending over the next decade, accusations that Wall Street is a criminal enterprise and the continuous demonization of “millionaires and billionaires”-is not all that different from its South American cousins.

Democratic socialism-whether Chavez’s or Sanders’s-is legalized theft in the name of the people against the vilified few. It is a battle against income inequality by means of collective immiseration. It is the subjugation of private enterprise and personal autonomy to government power.

Mr. Sanders promises to pursue his aims on the Scandinavian model, as if that was a success, and as if Americans are Scandinavians. It wasn’t. We aren’t. Bernie’s Way paves the same road to serfdom that socialism does everywhere.”

FYI: Bernie and Hillary both want the same thing. It is garbage; it is un-American and would destroy our free market system. Get on the Trump Train. Let’s “Make America Great Again!”

Egyptian Airline Disappears With 66 On Board

On Wednesday night it was reported that an Egyptian airliner with 66 on board had disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea on its way from Paris to Cairo. During the course of the day Thursday, debris from the wreckage was found. It is being investigated as an act of terrorism at this time. Go figure.

Bathroom Bill Endangers Federal School Funds

I feel like a woman today, think I’ll go visit the ladies room….just joking, but if you think that will not happen and is not happening right now, you are deluding yourself. It is un-Constitutional for the federal government to threaten to cut off funding to our schools if they refuse to tow the line on the stupid transgender “directive” put forth by this administration last week.

It opens the doors for perverts of both sexes and sexually confused individuals. What about the rights of “normal” heterosexual people? Are we to be relegated to an unrecognizable status in order to please gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals?

Wake up America. This is progressive pandering for votes. They do not, in truth, give a rat’s ass about any of us. Only themselves and holding on to power.

White House Lockdown

Friday afternoon around 2:30 pm: shots fired at the White House complex. The White House is on lockdown, the Secret Service has cleared the North Lawn area. Word is someone has been wounded and is in critical condition. How does this happen with all the security on duty? How?

“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.