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Signs That The Global Economic Turmoil Is Just Beginning

Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 2 months ago to Business
87 comments | Share | Flag

From the article:
1. The number of job cuts in the United States skyrocketed 218 percent during the month of January according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

2. The Baltic Dry Index just hit yet another brand new all-time record low. As I write this article, it is sitting at 303.

3. U.S. factory orders have now dropped for 14 months in a row.

4. In the U.S., the Restaurant Performance Index just fell to the lowest level that we have seen since 2008.

5. In January, orders for class 8 trucks (the big trucks that you see shipping stuff around the country on our highways) declined a whopping 48 percent from a year ago.

6. Rail traffic is also slowing down substantially. In Colorado, there are hundreds of train engines that are just sitting on the tracks with nothing to do.

7. Corporate profit margins peaked during the third quarter of 2014 and have been declining steadily since then. This usually happens when we are heading into a recession.

All Comments

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  • Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Not a very good example since the physics was purposely ignored so the real hero was unrealistically lost and a PC hero was manufactured.
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Frankly...that's downright strange, isn't it?

    I know one of those - still blaming Bush. This weekend I showed her a video of Syrian refugees assaulting Europeans. Her response, "Oh, that's all staged by the Republicans."

    What a strange psychosis...
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  • Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Darn, Jan, that stuff sets a bad example. Ought to be banned. Puts politicians productivity toward promised goals in a bad light. People can't handle the truth.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    While I am probably less fond of dark than you are, I basically agree: I can have some dark in a story as long as it is matched by heroic.

    The other touchstone I have found will be no surprise to you: Competence Porn. I am totally in love with Competence Porn. My heroes can go through dark times, but when I can see them extricating themselves from whatever besets them by sheer ability...well, that is what I really like. (The Martian was an excellent example of this. Atlas Shrugged was an odd inversion of this - heroes extricating themselves from a situation by refusing to use their competence for society.)

    Jan
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  • Posted by Herb7734 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    She was a big disappointment. I don't mind "dark and gritty" but I'd like my heroes to be heroic. "The times they are a-changin'"
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  • Posted by term2 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Prices can drop because of an expanding j labor supply or an influx of workers willing to work for less. I don't see anything wrong with declining prices. It's part of the way an economy balances itself
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  • Posted by ChuckyBob 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I would love to fly to Singapore just to see how many ships are laid up. In 2008-2009 the anchorage was full of laid up vessels.
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  • Posted by ChuckyBob 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The other day I texted one of my friends who is still working in the maritime field to ask about the scuttlebutt in the industry. I mentioned the record low Baltic Index and asked if this was being seen as a harbinger of future economic problems. The first response was "W." Really? After 7 years the diehard dems are still blaming George W. for any and every problem.
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  • Posted by ChuckyBob 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It all depends on the reason for the fall in commodity prices. If they fall due to innovation it's not all bad. However, if they fall due to shrinking demand when population is growing it indicates less money moving around which would indicate a move toward recession. Generally, if prices drop then you get a whip-saw effect and demand increases re-stimulating the economy. However, commodity prices have been steadily heading south, which indicates the system is broken.
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  • Posted by ChuckyBob 9 years, 2 months ago
    When I was working, I worked for a couple of trucking companies and I worked in the maritime field. Just saying the Baltic Index Dry index is at 303 probably doesn't mean much to most folks. To me it is VERY scary. The high in the index was before the big recession. It reached over 11,000. Panmax vessels at that time were charging up to $80,000 per day. They could do that because the demand for raw materials was huge. Then the crash came and vessels were swinging at anchor anyplace they could find a cheap safe harbor. That was when the Baltic Index was at 500. At 300 it does not make sense to do anything but park the ship. I have gone to cash with most of my investments. This feels so much like 2007-2008.
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  • Posted by wiggys 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    when all is said and done and we have a new president, and I expect it will be a republican and they all suggest that they are free market defenders we will see how things go. I believe that the turn around that you are suggesting that will happen will not happen. the economy of the world will dictate how things economically go and I believe they will continue to go down the toilet. some one said the chickens are coming home to roost and the direction followed by all of the presidents probably since Lincoln is the direction that has been followed. they simply have learned nothing and 0's policy has put the country and ultimately the world into a situation that I do not know of anyone who can offer advice that will cause the economy to even start to turn for the better. technically we are moving to a fascist economy, by passing socialism. time will tell!
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  • Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Sounds like lazy, unimaginative writers. Lots of new technology since superman was born, but very few Heinleins to use it creatively.
    JJ, wretch! Barely made it through one episode.
    Canadian tv's Murdoch Mysteries has some admirable characters (and some pc history lessons.) William Shatner was a guest star in a recent episode as Mark Twain.
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/william-s...
    "Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Harry Houdini, Winston Churchill and Bat Masterson have all appeared on the show."
    There is, of course, a beleagered inventor-capitalist with a recurring role. He succeeds against adversity (and against the meddling of Murdoch and the constabulary) albeit with modest rewards at best.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Superman's problem is not that he is so good, it is that he is so powerful it is difficult to create plots around him. So - from what I read - the current Superman movies and comics are tearing him down too.

    One of the main problems that I see in our social uber consciousness over the past several decades, FFA, is that we have managed to make 'good' genuinely unattractive. I like the tendency in the comic book movies to make 'good' a positive thing again (but then along comes JJ and Daredevil...sigh).

    Jan, art leads: but where it is going I'm not sure I want to travel...
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  • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I figured you were referring to JJ. I read and liked the Daredevil comics when they came out, but the 'dark and gritty' Daredevil of Netflix holds no attraction for me. I watched about 5 minutes of JJ...then turned her off!

    Jan
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  • Posted by tdechaine 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Wrong. More free market means less push for controls et al. Obama is less free market than his predecessors and look where we have gone in 7 years.
    Don't confuse relative differences with principles. Free marketers always vote for the candidate who is least statist for a reason - regardless of the fact that all of them might be mixed.
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  • Posted by johnpe1 9 years, 2 months ago
    sounds like "blaming Bush syndrome" and the massive
    welfare state is floundering. -- j
    .
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  • Posted by wiggys 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    you are either pro free market or you are not. as Ayn Rand has explained a mixed economy does not work. politicians will ultimately be the last ones to understand that, so "more" is meaningless.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    President O'Bama is a progressive,
    Which makes his actions much too excessive,
    When he goes, I hope it's for good,
    Perhaps stuck deeply into the 'hood.
    But that's not where he will be treated,
    Instead on many a board he'll be seated.

    Michael, we've gotta save this stuff and publish a book. Poems of the Antichrist?
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