Posted on 10/18/2009 6:24:28 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Weekly US Railroad Carloadings Down 17.2%, Cumulative Decline By 18.1%
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/16/2009 16:02 -0500
AAR Commodity Housing Lennar Railroads US Volume
Even as we have anniversaried the Lehman collapse, the primary indicator of economic viability and potential growth: intermodal traffic, continues to decline. In fact the weekly decline was slight worse, and came out at -17.2% YoY for week 40, nominally worse than the prior week's -17.1%. The categories most impacted were Primary Forest Products and Lumber and Wood Products, both instrumental in new housing construction. If there is a reason to be buying Centex, Lennar and Toll, sure don't look for it here.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Ping!
Driving around here, out west, you can see strings and strings of empty freight cars lining the sidings. I don’t know how it is back east but I’ll bet its the same.. How’s that Hope and Change workin’ for you libs now?
The only commodity going way up in transport around the USA is BS. The lies and BS mount day by day as the Democrats bankrupt the nation into forced socialism.
That pretty much mirrors the 20% drop in electricity demand. The drop is primarily from manufacturing cut backs. Electricity generators are expecting at least another 10% decline in the next 9 to 12 months.
But pay no attention to those facts. According to Onada, Bernacke and Geitner the economy has made a turn for the better. Of course, they provide absolutely no evidence that this is so. For them, pretending is good enough.
The intermodal segment is near and dear to my weekly paycheck. Been watching it decline for months. The rail hub yards like mine here in KC should be chock-full of loaded containers and trailers coming in from the west coast for Christmas season stock-up. The yards aren’t even half-full most days. I saw an entire BNSF consist of EMPTY sea-going containers last Wednesday double stacked, of course, headed for Chicago to be off-loaded and stored no doubt somewhere along the I-55 corridor. But, the the recession is over and the economy is coming back they tell us. HORSEHIT !
Welcome to 21st century world, where life is just a role-playing game inside vast web of computers.:-)
Here's our jobless recovery...
I like your chart. I will use “flat line” to describe our economy when ever I get the chance.
I’m happy to note that you, too, see through Onada’s “jobless recovery” nonsense. Funny, but I don’t recall one so-called economist challenging our Dear Leader when he said it.
I’ve no idea how the DOW breached 10,000 this past week. Heck, I’ve no idea how it ever “recovered” from 5000. There is absolutely nothing holding the Market up except billious claims by Onada, Bernacke and Geitner. The balloon will ultimately deflate as joblessness grows, the housing market stays in the toilet and foreclosures continue apace, banks fail and the deficit mushrooms.
At some point the deficit will also drive inflation. Lagging demand has prevented it up to now, but the deficit will ultimately be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
All aboard for the Obama recovery!
Last week senior Mr. Mineral and I were in town, and a Union Pacific went through. It had car after car of double stacked cargo boxes. The number of boxes was well past one hundred. I don’t know if the boxes were empty, but the train had two engines and was going at a good clip for in town. It was also heading east. However, senior Mineral said he saw a lot of parked railcars on the siding that parallels the interstate into Texarkana.
I’ve watched the BNSF traffic through Flagstaff, to and from Los Angeles, for years. It’s down, I estimate, about a third overall. There was little or no Christmas bump that I could see compared to other years. The economy on the street is decidedly in the tank.
On my recent Panama Canal cruise, I saw plenty of container,bulk and tanker ships riding high in the water. In the Canal, few ships were transiting and tugs and pilot boats were docked. All the ports, we visited were almost empty of ships, cranes were sitting idle and almost no one on the docks.
The only boats active in all ports were patrol boats.
BTTT 4 ltr ref
The Alaska RailRoad just laid off 127 workers. Least you think that a small number, the RR employes only 715 full time workers.
A 20% cut is a big deal - I wonder how bad the other RR have cut staff - I’ve not seen any reporting on that....
Somehow I continue to see brown sticks and not green shoots.
Check for seals when the next load of containers passes. That’ll tell ya whether it’s loaded or ney.
His observation was correct. There is an increase in containers; they are empties coming back from the Far East for storage in Chicago, LA, Kansas City, Atlanta, and Ft. Worth.
Oh boy.... will that comment ever make the econo-guru pissy!
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