Today's ISM manufacturing report was almost unbelievably disappointing. The headline index dropped to 51.3 in January from 56.5 in December. Economists were expecting 56.0. Many of the companies surveyed by the ISM blamed poor weather. But why were economists so far off with their estimates? For one thing, many of these economists model their numbers off of the regional surveys. This brings us to this colorful chart from Bloomberg LP chief economist Michael McDonough. It's of the progression of the national and various regional manufacturing survey indexes. McDonough notes that the ISM index — the national index — is ... (full story)