Apologies to Our Premium-Level Subscribers

When the public first learned the government was shutting down, many of us thought, “Glad I don’t work for Uncle Sam!” Now, as the shutdown extends its record as the longest in U.S. history, the effects are being felt well beyond the households of government employees. Even here at Steel Market Update. With government data suddenly unavailable, it’s impossible to update many of our regular reports. Readers may see some delays in the normal delivery of our Premium-level content. Our apologies.

As Chris Kuehl of Armada Corporate Intelligence reported in his latest newsletter, the government shutdown “is certainly making life a bit more difficult for economists and analysts. Among those who have been deemed non-essential are the legions of statisticians and researchers who collect and assess all the information that comes in to the government every hour of every day. If this shutdown drags on for much longer, there will be some substantial gaps developing in terms of what we know about the performance of the economy. Given that these are critical days of transition, this is bad timing to say the least.”