Earlier today, Caterpillar reported its monthly global OEM retail sales [4].
It didn't got any press coverage for one simple reason: the bellwether industrial company which has managed to repurchase [5]it way to all time highs in recent months hardly wants the investing public to know the unpleasant truth, a truth which is shown in its simplest format in the chart below: starting in December 2012 and continuing through today, Caterpiller has reported 19 consecutive months of declining global year-over-year retail sales. The last, and only, time it had 19 consecutive months of such decline? The period starting in October 2008 just when Lehman filed for bankruptcy.
So if we are to call that first period of 19 consecutive months of CAT sales decline the "Great Financial Crisis", we are confused: is the proper name of this identical 19-month period of declines beginning in December 2012 the Great... "Recovery?"
[6]
