Philly Fed Manufacturing Collapse, Shadow Stats Inflation at 11.2%, Colbert's Hilariously Interviews Keith Olbermann, and Anthony Weiner Heckled While Resigning

Big news today as the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Manufacturing Index took a huge dip today, sparking more calls for a double dip recession, Mish has the summary:

In Contraction

• General Business Conditions plunged 11.6 points to -7.7
• New Orders plunged 13 points to -7.6
• Unfilled Orders fell 8.5 points to -16.3
• Delivery Times plunged 18.2 points to -16.3
• Inventories fell 3.1 points to -8.5

General Business Conditions plunged to -7.7!  No one saw that coming.  Just more of an incentive for QEIII.

Shadow Stats, which according Robert Wenzel "calculates the CPI the way it was calculated by the government in 1990," has come out with an annualized CPI rate of 11.2% in comparison to the Bureau of Labor & Statistics' 3.6%:

I really have to look more into how Shadow Stats calculates the inflation rate because there are plenty of criticisms out there.  Still, I just paid about 5 bucks for a six pack of low grade toilet paper, so maybe 11.2% isn't such a farfetched stat.

With all the doom and gloom of economic stats, here are two hilarious videos for everyone to enjoy.  First is Stephen Colbert's interview with Keith Olbermann from last night:

I am almost lost it when Colbert asked him how he felt about losing to O'Reilly.  Olbermann clearly knows he did, but tries to tough it out anyway.

Next is Anthony Weiner's resignation from today, listen to the hecklers!

Absolutely hilarious.

I will end with another great chart from Mark Perry that should put all the trade balance cry babies to rest:

From Daniel Griswold of Cato:

In the broadest sense, our trade with the rest of the world is always balanced. In 2010, Americans bought $4 trillion worth of goods, services and assets from abroad, while foreigners bought $4 trillion worth of goods, services and assets from the U.S.

I bet Paul Krugman would agree.