Monday, November 24, 2008

The Crash


What you are looking at is a graph of the Baltic Dry Index. Now most likely you have no idea what that is. Basicly its a tool that estimates the demand for shipping world wide. It estimates the price of a standard cargo shipment, and tracks the cost change over time. The higher the cost of the shipment, the higher the demand for shipping.


Now this is important... because when economies are working... things are moving around. Stuff has to go from factories to stores... from country to country. Dig? These types of tools tell us a lot about the state of the economy world wide.


Now take a good look. From a high of 12,000 a few months ago... to 1000 today.


Ya know what that means? It means stuff ain't moving around. It means... factories aren't selling goods. It means factories aren't even making goods.


Consider as well... Its Christmas people. This is supposed to be the busiest time of year for shipping companies. Look at the graph. At the end of each year there is a spike. Not this year.


Not good.


Not good at all.

No comments: