February 22, 2012

Industrial Production in Europe is Either in Freefall or It’s Not

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I just happened to see these two charts back-to-back this morning, so here they are in one spot. The first shows that industrial production in Europe is continuing a steep decline. The second shows that industrial orders have picked up a bit after a big fall in September. So which is more important? More informative? More predictive? Is Europe crashing or is Europe stabilizing a bit after a scary spell last year? Is the difference an artifact of a decline in exports? Exchange rate woes? Something else? As usual, it would be great if we just had another few months of data. It always is. 

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We've never been very good at being conservative.

And usually, that serves us well in doing the ambitious, hard-hitting journalism that you turn to Mother Jones for. But it also means we can't afford to come up short when it comes to scratching together the funds it takes to keep our team firing on all cylinders, and the truth is, we finished our budgeting cycle on June 30 about $100,000 short of our online goal.

This is no time to come up short. It's time to fight like hell, as our namesake would tell us to do, for a democracy where minority rule cannot impose an extreme agenda, where facts matter, and where accountability has a chance at the polls and in the press. If you value our reporting and you can right now, please help us dig out of the $100,000 hole we're starting our new budgeting cycle in with an always-needed and always-appreciated donation today.

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