[editor-surveyor]

With our manufacturing productivity at or near a 50 year low, where would your secular bottom come from?

[familyop]

"With our manufacturing productivity at or near a 50 year low, where would your secular bottom come from?"

Yes. The balance of payments deficit (from trade deficits) is seldom mentioned while being the most certain indicator of extreme government shrinkage ahead (due to economic collapse caused by outrageous regulations and government spending). High energy prices (the real energy boom for some) and agriculture aren't enough to sustain the wealth we've enjoyed. We're running too much on recirculating and rising debt.

[familyop]

When our country becomes even more of a third world cesspool for many, oil will go down. That is, unless east Asia continues to increase manufacturing (manufacturing use, commercial transportation, hundreds of millions of new drivers). Then, our country would become even more of a third world cesspool (see third world oil exporters).

[ckilmer]

With our manufacturing productivity at or near a 50 year low, where would your secular bottom come from?
..........
US manufacturing PRODUCTIVITY is at an all time high and continues to make yearly gains.

However, manufacturing in the USA is at or near the bottom.

However, for now it looks like the trends are reversing. There are a lot of industries that rely on natural gas for power. The yawning gap between natural gas prices in the USA and other places in the world will force about 100 billion worth of industry in the next 10 years to return to the USA. There are other reasons. Here are two articles on the subject
Insourcing Boom

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-insourcing-boom/309166/

6 reasons manufacturing is returning to North America
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/6-reasons-manufacturing-is-returning-to-north-america/7422