That was the level of the US Purchasing Managers Index for November, according to the monthly report from the Institute for Supply Management release this week. That broke a string of 35 consecutive months of US manufacturing expansion, as indicated by PMI scores over the 50 mark. That November number was also the lowest figure since June of 2009 - the very bottom of the Great Recession. At one level, the disappointing number was not a big surprise, as the index had been trending down in recent months, just barely over the 50 mark in both October and September. In other bad news, the new orders index also fell below the 50 mark for the first time in a long while at 48.9, four percentage points below the October score. That measure is a strong predictor of future manufacturing activity. The Prices Index registered 35.5, a decrease of 3.5 percentage points from the October reading of 39, indicating lower raw materials prices for the 13th consecutive month..

That's how much money developed economies will need to pay to developing ones to compensate for previous carbon emissions and to help those nations move to more clean energy sources, according to recent comments from Prakash Javadekar, India's environmental minister, on the cusp of the UN Climate Summit meeting in Paris that started this week. In 2009 at a previous UN climate meeting, developed economies had vaguely committed to funding such environmental transfer payment related to global warming to the tune of $100 billion annually - though where the money would come from and how it would be disbursed was never clear. But now many developing nations are saying that even that $100 billion is nowhere near enough. "The $100 billion is just a reparation," India's Javadekar says, claiming trillions more is needed in the name of "climate justice." China the world's second largest economy, also wants in on the cash flow.