The State of the Economy (August 2nd, 2023): Credit Rating Down, Recession Unlikely, Manufacturing Looking Hopeful.

Ships Trading in the East 
1614
Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom
Representing increased
economic activity.

The US is in an interesting place within its economic reemergence as an advanced manufacturing nation. There have been some past positive news such as manufacturing return, low unemployment, etc. mixed with inflation issues and other problems. Certainly it would give economists some serious headaches trying to figure out what it all means. Are we growing or declining, moving to a new economic platform, has the world events and economy impacted the U.S.?, etc. are the type of questions will likely come forward (They may say those things academic language while using data but essentially they are just seeking to answer the bigger questions.) 

In this hunt for understanding I came across a well informed article from Bloomberg's US Manufacturers Are Showing Signs of Life After Slump. A bullet point of the main ideas are....

-Fitch adjusted US credit rating down.

-China encouraging local bond buying for infrastructure creation (It looks like China is trying to compete. The race for the digital era is on and if the US solves some of it political issues and makes strategic bi-partisan choices in a way that maximizes on our diverse human capital it will likely come out on top. The advantage the US has is based in untapped human potential while what China has is economic control that pinpoints resources. Generally, economic free acting agents do better than top managed systems. Creative destruction process. Yet that is only true when diversity is managed to clear goals and different thoughts and ideas lead to new options. i.e. cognitive diversity.)

-Manufacturing index declines but sub indexes like orders are showing improvement meaning pace is picking up. They used Caterpillar as an example of industrial equipment at the root of development.

-Bank of American removed its recession forecast and there is indication the economy will continue to expand (See projections). 

-Spending and income are at mismatch which could be an indication of increased personal debt.

-Bond market is up.