It took some doing, and some time, but Mexico has managed to bring its car production back up to more normal levels. For two months, there had been practically zero automaking in one of the biggest auto-producing nations. Getting back near where things left off, however, isn’t exactly a “V” shaped recovery; it’s only halfway.
Two months of zero production are two months of zero sales for the OEM’s producing down there. The latest data is for the month of July meaning that for all the reported robustness of the reopening world there is again another sign of contradictory gentleness and deliberate precaution belying the notion.
I mean, that’s ~600k light vehicles which should have been manufactured and would have been yet they weren’t. In how many places can the biggest economic contributors just skip one-sixth of their annual revenue? The answer is none. Read more…..
Chart of the Day
Icarus TV
As the Republican National Convention gets underway, we reviewed our interviews with top economists to see how they understand the economic impact of President Trump’s first term. Jeffery Sachs took a hard stance saying the Trump presidency is “the worst presidency in American history,” aside from James Buchanan before the civil war. Paul Krugman expressed that President Trump’s ability to break Washington’s obsession with national debt was a positive contribution. Joseph Stiglitz hoped that other countries will not return the same “ugliness” as President Trump’s protectionism.
