Readers will know that I follow the Baltic Dry Index as a good measure of our economic health. This is the cost to ship an intermodal container from Point A to Point B. It has been very low over the last eight years or so. If there is no demand for goods, there will be less goods shipped and the cost to ship goods will drop (lower demand for a resource means lower cost to consumer).
Peter Grant writes at Bayou Renaissance Man and also follows the economy including measurements like the Baltic Dry. He posted a great one today - long, lots of links and well worth reading. One of his commenters posted a link to railroad car traffic - this is just as bad. From Captain Capitalism:
What the Railroad Tells Us About the Economy
The economy ever since 2006 has been "Meh."
When historians and academics look back at Obama's economic performance, they'll say "meh."
We never left the recession as far as I'm concerned and with economic growth BARELY outpacing population growth our increases in standards of living has been "meh."
And since "meh" isn't exciting, I moved onto other things.
But then I hear whispers and rumors, sayings and speakings, and an increasing amount of them are about the economy. And the economy is no longer "meh" like it has been since 2008, but things are not looking too good. Oil prices are down (not just on supply concerns, but demand concerns). The Baltic index is down, showing a global slow down. And then a little birdy in the railroad biz I know said to look at rail car traffic. And 2016 it is very much down.
Please note that they are jerking our chain a little bit - look at the Y Axis. It starts at 480 and not zero. Comparing December 2015 (estimated 480) with December 2014 (estimated 530) we see a drop of about 10% - significant but not earth shattering. Still, railroad traffic is taking a big hit and it is also a good proxy for our poxy economy.
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