This Is the Best ‘Hard Goods’ Boom in Decades

That’s right. A new batch of industrial production, manufacturing, and business capital expenditure came out today — showing the best hard goods boom in decades.

Import prices fell for a second straight month. Another example of moderating inflation.

And all the legacy press wants to talk about is the allegation that rising inflation is driving up long-term interest rates. That charge is wrong. Yet I’ll get to that in a moment.

The important story is still the manufacturing boom. And Tuesday’s industrial production report showed back-to-back gains in June and July for both total production and manufacturing production.

Durable goods, which is the heart of the manufacturing story, are up 8.2 percent annually over the past three months. And then there’s the continued boom in business equipment, capex as Wall Street calls it, now up about 9.5 percent annually over the past three months.

Electronics, computers, communications equipment, and semiconductors — that’s all averaged about 20 percent growth over the past three months.

Don’t forget the Institute for Supply Management reports showing manufacturing up for seven straight months. Goods producing jobs are up 105,000 so far this year.

The Committee to Unleash Prosperity Hotline talks about a McKinsey estimate of $7 trillion of construction for new data centers that could produce a $3.5 trillion windfall for blue-collar employees with average pay around $100,000.

The Atlanta Fed marked up its third quarter GDP to 4 percent. And as for inflation and interest rates, as Breitbart’s John Carney has pointed out, the rise in long-term treasury yields is almost entirely a function of higher real capital returns in the booming economy.

Consumer price index break-evens in the Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities market have barely budged. Some day the media may report the booming economy under Mr. Trump, but because they won’t so far, I feel compelled to do it for them. It’s like a public service.

Larry Kudlow is a columnist for the New York Sun. From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.