Global shipping collapse points to continued recession
Posted on 14 October 2009 with no comments from readersShipping is generally a leading indicator for world business, and the collapse in global trade since May 2009 points to a renewed downturn. This CBC video highlights the dramatic fall in shipping rates and what it means for the future.
The recession is coming back and the current ‘recovery’ phase is almost done. I must admit this video shows a grim reality and it ought to be a warning to investors piling into stock markets at the moment.
Basically a shortage of credit around the world is freezing up trade, and without trade the global economy shrinks. It is not the end of life on earth, but it almost certainly marks another down leg for the Great Recession which optimistic politicians and bankers would like to fool us into thinking is now over.
If they have been trying to talk the real economy up then the shipping rates suggest this has not worked, and that financial markets are now in a completely unsustainable bubble.
no Comments posted by readers:
So the world’s biggest exporter is ‘only’ down 15.2% on a year ago, this is a bigger fall in trade than anything in the Great Depression… does nobody get it??
Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) — China’s exports fell at the slowest pace in nine months in September, adding to evidence that the global economy is emerging from its deepest postwar recession.
Shipments dropped 15.2 percent to $115.9 billion from a year earlier, the customs bureau said on its Web site today. The median estimate of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 21 percent decline. In August, exports slid 23.4 percent.
Your right, the real economy is stuffed, folk losing jobs, foreclosures, banks closing, SMB getting squeezed and enterprise as well. It will take a while for all the sandbagging and stimulus to allow the tide to go out so we can see who wearing pants. Meanwhile shorts getting hammered.