Steve Minter

The Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index (CFMMI) continued to edge up in February, reaching 96.3 (2007 = 100). The measure of manufacturing production increased 0.8%, following a revised 0.4% increase in January, and outpaced the Federal Reserve’s national production index increase of 0.6%.

Manufacturing production in the Midwest was 5.9% higher in February than a year earlier. National output was 2.4% higher in February than the year before.

There is ample potential for U.S. manufacturing to undergo a resurgence that by 2025 would lead to significantly more good paying manufacturing jobs, increase GDP growth and help create the first surplus in the nation’s goods and services balance of trade since 1975, according to a new econometric forecast model released today by the Aspen Institute and the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI).

The United States needs progress on climate change, Dow (IW 500/22) CEO Andrew Liveris told a manufacturing conference recently, but he wasn't talking about reducing greenhouse gases. He was describing the business climate in the U.S. and the problem of "complex and expensive regulations stifling America."

"Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing," President Obama told the nation in his State of the Union address Feb. 12. There's nothing like a televised SOTU speech to showcase the disunion in the nation's capital.

Starting the year in the wrong direction, the U.S. trade deficit increased in January to $44.4 billion, up from $38.1 billion in December 2012, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported today. The deficit figure was higher than analysts' consensus estimates of about $43 billion.

Manufacturing production fell 0.4% in January, the Federal Reserve reported today, after gains in November and December. But for the fourth quarter, the bank revised its manufacturing production estimate upward to 1.9%.

Leading declines in the manufacturing drop were motor vehicles and parts, which fell 3.2%, and primary metals, which fell 2.6%.