Well, howdy there, internet people, it's Bell again. So today, we're going to talk about

Trump, trucks, and nine months of contraction. Trump promised a golden age. He promised his

tariffs would bring manufacturing back, as is routine. the reality is the opposite of his promises.

November marked nine straight months of U.S. manufacturing contracting, and it was the biggest

contraction in four months.

The Institute for Supply Management's latest survey showed a PMI reading of 48.2.

Anything below 50 means shrinking U.S. manufacturing.

PMI is P&M.I is Purchasing Manager's Index.

In a completely unsurprising result, the survey data indicates that the U.S. manufacturing base is being dragged down by uncertainty

concerning U.S. trade policy. I'll say the line. Markets hate uncertainty. Basically,

customers are holding back orders waiting for more clarity about what Trump's economic

policy will be tomorrow or the day

after. The constant shifts in policy that gave birth to the taco trade terminology is hitting

American industry hard. Trump's tariffs are not leading to a golden age for American manufacturing.

They're pushing it off the cliff.

Employment in manufacturing is going the wrong way too. About a quarter of respondents said they

had decreased employment. That's the largest percentage of respondents since, well, the last time

Trump was in office. That was in mid-2020.

The chair of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, Susan Spence, said something that

definitely got everybody's attention. She basically said that without a significant change to trade policy that establishes

some kind of certainty when it comes to costs, quote, we do not see anything on the horizon

that's going to turn the ship. She also said, quote, it is not certainly what I think folks expected to have happened, but it's where we are.

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