Most economic numbers are an average of many different observations across industries and geographic regions. What holds true in one industry or region may have little or nothing to do with another. Rising oil prices are very positive for a company in the oil service industry, but negative for a transportation company for which fuel is a major cost. A weak California economy may make housing start numbers look anemic, yet a builder in Dallas may having trouble keeping up with demand. An increase in inventory levels across the board may signal a slowdown for basic industries, and yet may be meaningless to a semiconductor company whose biggest challenge is maintaining any inventory.
Economic numbers are slow to keep up with the times.
They do a poor job reflecting longer-term shifts in the economy such as globalization, the effect of technology on productivity, and the evolution in economic orientation from industrial to informational. Trade numbers, for example, do a poor job reflecting the global flow of products and services across national borders. They are a throwback to a time when each country was like an island, with its own industries and companies. Today companies like Intel not only compete, but operate on a global basis. They may be based in California, but their view of their market extends far beyond this nation's shores.