While the recent dramatic revision in construction spending - a direct input into GDP - which as we noted earlier this week, was a huge revision in the series  by the US government which admitted to "processing errors" would lead to substantial downward revisions to recent GDP prints, moments ago the US November Trade deficit printed at $42.4 billion, down from $44.6 billion in October and better than the $44.0 billion consensus expectation.

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

U.S. President Barack Obama is not just the world’s best gun salesman, he’s also the world’s worst gun control spokesperson.

 

Despite immediately politicizing every single shooting event in recent years by using his bully pulpit to lecture the American public on why citizens must give up their rights to feel safe, his message has fallen on deaf ears. Why?

 

If Mark Zandi and his "whatever it takes" seasonal-adjusters at ADP are to be believed, the US manufacturing sector added the most jobs in 11 months in December. Our question is simple - with ISM Manufacturing Employment at post-recession lows and US Manufacturing PMIs at post-recesssion lows, and inventories-to-sales ratios at post-recession highs, why are goods-producers hiring at such a frantic pace?

Double-Seasonal-adjustment?

Police in a Welsh town say that the long arm of the law is being obstructed by the long legs of the spider. The spiders have been weaving their webs in front of CCTV cameras, making images useless to police trying to solve crimes. Footage of the obstructions was shown during a recent meeting of the Ffestiniog Town Council. RT reports: Cambrian News reports the town clerk, or Spider Man as they’re being called in the office, will now be in charge of checking the monitors once a week and “thoroughly” cleaning the camera lenses at least four times a year.

Great news right? For those hoping for some "bad news is good news to slow The Fed down" data, ADP is a disappointment. The December monthly change was a rise of 257k - hugely better than the expected 198k and th ebiggest rise since December 2014. Most importantly the goods-producing sector added a shocking 23,000 jobs - despite every single manufacturing indicator deep in recession. Service-sector jobs added 234k.

Best jobs gains in a year (does that sound right?)

The details from the report: