Courtesy of Doug Short.
Earlier today I posted an update on the January Advance Report on December Durable Goods New Orders. This Census Bureau series dates from 1992 and is not adjusted for either population growth or inflation.
Let’s now review Durable Goods data with two adjustments. In the charts below the red line shows the goods orders divided by the Census Bureau’s monthly population data, giving us durable goods orders per capita. The blue line goes a step further and adjusts for inflation based on the Producer Price Index for All Commodities, chained in today’s dollar value. This gives us the “real” durable goods orders per capita and thus a more accurate historical context in which to evaluate the conventional reports on the nominal monthly data.
Economists frequently study this indicator excluding Transportation or Defense or both. Just how big are these two subcomponents? Here is a stacked area chart to illustrate the relative sizes over time based on the nominal data.
Here is the first chart, repeated this time ex Transportation, the series usually referred to as “core” durable goods.
Now we’ll leave Transportation in the series and exclude Defense orders.
And now we’ll exclude both Transportation and Defense for a better look at a more concentrated “core” durable goods orders.
Here is the chart that I believe gives the most accurate view of what Consumer Durable Goods Orders is telling us about the long-term economic trend. The three-month moving average of the real (inflation-adjusted) core series (ex transportation and defense) per capita helps us filter out the noise of volatility to see the big picture.
The Trend in Capital Goods
Finally, let’s take a big step back in the sales chain and look at the most popular durable goods data series according to the FRED statistics. It is Nondefense Capital Goods New Orders Excluding Aircraft (capital goods are durable items used in the production of goods or services), shown here on a per-capita basis, nominal and real.
For a better understanding of the overall Capital Goods metric, here is a stacked area chart that illustrates its three major components (not adjusted for inflation).
Here is the same chart adjusted for inflation using the Producer Price Index for All Commodities.
In addition illustrating the relative contribution of the three major components of Capital Goods, the area chart also gives us a sense of the higher monthly volatility of the Aircraft and Defense orders.
The Long-Term Trend
As these charts illustrate, when we study durable goods orders in the larger context of population growth and also adjust for inflation, the data becomes a coincident macro-indicator of a major shift in demand within the U.S. economy. It correlates with a decline in real household incomes, as illustrated in my analysis of the most recent Census Bureau household income data:
- Monthly Median Incomes Since 2000
- By Quintile and Top Five Percent
- Median Incomes by Age Bracket
- Deflating the American Dream
The secular trend in durable goods orders also helps us understand the long-term trend in GDP that I’ve illustrated elsewhere. See especially the most recent update on GDP.
As we can see from the various metrics above, revisions notwithstanding, the real per-capita demand for durable goods had increased since the trough at the end of the last recession. But new orders remain far below their respective peaks near the turn of the century and earlier. A key driver, or lack thereof, for healthy growth in durable goods orders is growth in household incomes. For a perspective on this point, see my latest update on Median Household Incomes, data through last month, which are down substantially since the end of the Great Recession.
See also this pair of commentaries focusing on the Sentier Research report on the fifth anniversary of median household incomes since the end of the Great Recession:
