As the following two charts show, despite the rest of the world being mired in an entirely lackadaisical muddle-through - in terms of both manufacturing...
[6]
and non-manufacturing PMIs...
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...the US is representing itself as the new growth engine with an expanding and rising economy (if the 'recovery-is-right-around-the-corner' data is to be believed). Even as manufacturing jobs continue to structurally disappear...
[8]
Of course, we are hearing the term 'decoupling' and 'cleanest dirty shirt' once again (begging the question Rick Santelli has asked numerous times "so why not remove the Fed's training wheels") but we remind, there is never a decoupling in the highly interconnected global economy (and its stagnant trade volumes). Our simple question is, with all this dramatic divergence from the rest of the world, stagnant income growth, and anemic manufacturing job growth how will the consumer-driven US sustain its exuberance?
As an aside for the ever-optimistic asset-gatherers mesmerized by the US data... we present the Schrodinger Chinese economy (both contracting at its worst in 12 months and expanding at its best in 2 months - and don't forget the last time US PMI was here, GDP was negative) - still trust the US data?
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(h/t @Not_Jim_Cramer)