Hints of recession in sleepy Richmond Fed data

Richmond Fed manufacturing got absolutely walloped in July. In fact, the all-important new orders component sank to an abysmal -25 from -7 in June and -1 two months ago. This is by far the weakest print since the recession. In fact, at no point has this metric been this low when we have not been in a recession.
To be sure, the data capture only two cycles prior to this one, but this doesn’t take away from the fact that the recent print is suggesting things could be much worse than advertised. We continue to hear how this year is “2011 all over again”, yet the data suggest it is materially worse.

http://blogs.reuters.com/macroscope/2012/07/25/hints-of-u-s-recession-in-sleepy-richmond-fed-report/