Greetings from London, dear readers. This week, we find ourselves traversing the UK engineering marvel that is “Crossrail.” Crossrail, a product of over a decade of meticulous planning and development, is a new 72-mile train line that burrows under virtually all of Central London, significantly reducing many journey times. The planning team behind it asserts that this mammoth project brings “an additional 1.5 million people to within 45 minutes of London’s main employment, leisure, and business districts.” Crossrail’s construction is an engineering triumph. It took eight powerful tunnel boring machines nearly three years to carve out 26 miles beneath London. Some sections of Crossrail lie as deep as 450 feet below the surface of London, far deeper than the subway or the “Underground.” Despite the hefty price tag of … [Read more...] about Infrastructure: The Bipartisan Case for Investment (A Postcard from London)
Industry News
Three Economic Expectations Which May Prove False: The Importance of Seeking Out Alternative Perspectives
Whether you’re on the left or right, trust in mainstream news has declined precipitously in recent years, not only because of media bias, but also because much of what existing outlets proclaim will happen ends up being at best, misleading, and at worst, completely wrong. In fact, several well-known prognosticators have predicted that the next Presidential election will, in large part, be determined by podcasts and social media due to the dissolution of trust in traditional news sources. However, when it comes to business topics—especially those involving the US economy and manufacturing—information consumers do not have the same alarm bells built in when consuming news. Nor do many seek out (despite the existence of dozens of great sources) expert analysis that offers conflicting opinions on economics. We believe this means that … [Read more...] about Three Economic Expectations Which May Prove False: The Importance of Seeking Out Alternative Perspectives
Tracking the Manufacturing Slowdown
Recent economic manufacturing data suggests a US economy in a downturn (and likely, overall, in recession). In March, ISM’s Manufacturing Index declined for the fifth month in a row (after growing for 28 months before the decline commenced at the end of 2022), at a level signifying material economic contraction and a likely recession. Overall, every single sub-index comprising the overall ISM Manufacturing PMI contracted for the first time since May of 2009. In its latest report, ISM suggests that the PMI stood “at its lowest level since May 2020, when it registered 43.5 percent.” Particularly bearish in the report was the “New Orders” sub-index which “remained in contraction territory at 44.3 percent, 2.7 percentage points lower than the figure of 47 percent recorded in February.” According to ISM and Reuters, buyer anecdotes are … [Read more...] about Tracking the Manufacturing Slowdown
Inflation and Politics: The Role of the Federal Reserve
To understand the Q2 2021 inflationary environment — whether it will be sustained or not — it is important to turn to economists. Allan Meltzer, perhaps the most prolific historian when it comes to the Federal Reserve Bank, wrote in the Wall Street Journal: “The Fed’s recent behavior is in sharp contrast to the European Central Bank. The ECB keeps its eye on both objectives, growth and low inflation. It doesn’t shift back and forth from one to the other. The Fed should do the same. In the 1970s, because the Fed shifted from one goal to the other and back again, it achieved neither. Both inflation and unemployment rose on average, then fell together in the 1980s — after the Fed controlled inflation. … After 1985, Fed policy kept inflation and unemployment low. The result was 20 years of growth, and three of the longest peacetime … [Read more...] about Inflation and Politics: The Role of the Federal Reserve
New Look & Feel, Same Commitment to You
97 years ago, when my great grandpa Thomas P. Scanlan started Surplus Record, he had a vision to connect dealers and manufacturers across the nation. World War I had ended a few years prior, and he saw a demand to get wartime machinery no longer being used, out of the hands of the government and into civilian manufacturing. He created the Surplus Record as an easy way for dealers to advertise their machinery to manufacturers and connect for joint ventures and lifelong partnerships. Nearly 100 years later, I know he would be proud to see how far Surplus Record has come over our company’s lifetime and how many relationships have been forged through our book and website. When my father came on board in 1982, the economy was in a depression, but it was gearing up for a big turnaround. Little did he know, the internet was coming and … [Read more...] about New Look & Feel, Same Commitment to You