U.S. Industrial Production Lower Than In 2000

U.S. Industrial production fell another 2% in December. The 12 month decline is now 7.8%, the biggest since 1982. Looking at manufacturing alone, the situation is even worse, with a 2.3% monthly decline and a 9.9% 12 month decline. The other two components, mining and utilities have held up fairly good, although I expect mining to start contracting soon due to the decline in commodity prices.

This sharp drop means that industrial production in December 2008 were actually lower than in December 2000 (indeed it is lower than in April 2000 as well), meaning that industrial production during the 8 years of Bush actually declined somewhat (No, I'm not blaming him, I'm blaming Greenspan, but it illustrates how deep the current slump is).

UPDATE: Here is a good chart that illustrates this fact: