NYT Says That the Rise of Manufacturing Output Almost to December Levels Is Grounds for the Fed to Tighten

The headline of the piece was "manufacturing gains likely to spur Fed's stimulus cuts." The actual news was that manufacturing output was reported as rising 0.8 percent in February, reversing most of a 0.9 percent decline in January. It's a bit hard to see this as solid growth. If we add in December, manufacturing has grown at a 0.4 percent annual rate over the last three months.

Manufacturing output is just 1.5 percent above its year ago level. This has led to a drop in the capacity utiliza...