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At U.S. Ports, Exports Are Coming Up Empty
Wall Street Journal ^ | 13 October 2015 | Erica E. Phillips

Posted on 10/15/2015 9:19:51 AM PDT by Lorianne

Major gateways say more ocean containers are shipping out empty, a sign of weak demand in troubled global markets and the tough sell American exporters face abroad ___ One of the fastest-growing U.S. exports right now is air.

Shipments of empty containers out of the U.S. are surging this year, highlighting the impact the economic slowdown in China is having on U.S. exporters. The U.S. imports more from China than it sends back, but certain American industries—including those that supply scrap metal and wastepaper—feed China’s industrial production.

Those exporters have suffered this year as China’s economy has cooled. In September, the Port of Long Beach, Calif., part of the country’s busiest ocean-shipping gateway, handled 197,076 outbound empty boxes. They accounted for nearly a third of all containers that moved through the port last month. September was the eighth straight month in which empty containers leaving Long Beach outnumbered those loaded with exports.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: chinacrisis; containers; emptycontainers; globalcrisis; uscrisis

1 posted on 10/15/2015 9:19:51 AM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

Ya’ gotta jus’ luv Obama’s world view of economics. Marxism and poverty for all, no exceptions except maybe he and the Clintons.


2 posted on 10/15/2015 9:22:15 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: Lorianne

This is the strong dollar. Buying goods from us is more expensive.


3 posted on 10/15/2015 9:25:07 AM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: Lorianne

Years ago we sent our garbage, toxic waste, and recyclables in the cargo containers because it was less costly to dump it in China and asia in general than to process it here.


4 posted on 10/15/2015 9:39:12 AM PDT by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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To: Lorianne

Is that necessarily a problem? Once the goods are here, consumers buy these goods from domestic sources and either consume them or use them to make other goods that are turned around and sold. The money used to buy these goods domestically is used in turn to build and grow business. This so-called “trade imbalance” is another Leftist device to scare you into thinking you need government interested to fix it. Right?

But wait. What if government is THE PROBLEM? How can the SOLUTION also be THE PROBLEM?

What caused our manufacturing and other business to move out of the country in the first place? Lower costs of doing business elsewhere. Contrary to what the Left and ignorant folks tell you, businesses are not moved by politics - they are moved by LOWER COSTS and HIGHER PROFITS.

So what is the root cause? FEDERAL GOVERNMENT interference in the free market. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has caused business to move elsewhere and has stagnated our economy. Get the feds out of the economy by lowering taxes to a flat 10%-15% across the board (turn the IRS into a storefront) and abolishing:

1) the so-called business tax which is actually a hidden individual tax. There’s no “business tax”, only forced higher costs on business that is passed on to the consumer in higher prices.

2) the minimum wage, forcing higher costs and prices and raising unemployment especially at the entry level. A disaster.

3) costly, useless, dead-end government regulations on business.

4) government protection of unions which kill cost cutting, competition, and innovation, the lifeblood of a healthy and thriving free market economy.


5 posted on 10/15/2015 9:41:08 AM PDT by Jim W N
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To: Lorianne

http://farmfutures.com/story-usda-export-sale-daily-report-17-120711
Spent the morning with a Russian crew loading beans in containers for export. Got an earful.


6 posted on 10/15/2015 9:42:14 AM PDT by griswold3 (Just another unlicensed nonconformist in am dangerous Liberal world.)
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To: Vince Ferrer
This is the strong dollar. Buying goods from us is more expensive.

An interest rate hike will make it stronger. Not good for US exporters if the Fed raises it anyway.

7 posted on 10/15/2015 9:43:31 AM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Lorianne
One of the fastest-growing U.S. exports right now is air...Those exporters have suffered this year as China’s economy has cooled. In September, the Port of Long Beach, Calif., part of the country’s busiest ocean-shipping gateway, handled 197,076 outbound empty boxes.

Great...now we're exporting the contents of the skulls of the poltroons in the White House.

On second thought...I guess since they weren't doing anything with the spaces between their ears anyway, they figured they might as well export it.

Meanwhile, overheard in Honk Kong: "Lovely...they shipped us yet another container of Obama's brains."
8 posted on 10/15/2015 9:44:25 AM PDT by Milton Miteybad (I am Jim Thompson. {Really.})
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To: Lorianne

I think Trump will refer to this situation and like illegal immigration, he will be the one who as been trumpeted this early and often.

“We have to bring back our jobs back from China. As an example, we have to bring manufacturing back. You look at Japan with the boats that come in pouring in with cars—you know what we send Japan? We send them beef. We send them wheat, we send them corn…”

And now he can say we are exporting air.


9 posted on 10/15/2015 9:57:16 AM PDT by lulu16 (May the Good Lord take a liking to you!)
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To: Lorianne

Just watch the BDI if you want to know how bad things are.


10 posted on 10/15/2015 10:00:56 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Jim 0216; Lorraine

Ultimately, EVERY SINGLE ONE of this nation’s “problems” is a result of an economic shift from being a producer based culture to being consumer based culture.


11 posted on 10/15/2015 10:50:01 AM PDT by Rodamala
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To: Lorianne

Free Trade Deals are good for us WHY again, exactly?


12 posted on 10/15/2015 10:50:25 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Rodamala

You’re focused on symptoms. You need to focus on the root cause: interference of the federal government in the free market which gums up productivity and prices and slows down economic growth.


13 posted on 10/15/2015 11:04:25 AM PDT by Jim W N
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To: Jim 0216

No, I am talking root cause. True, government meddling is why an American apparently can not make a living wage making the same plastic dog turd novelty toys right here that the Chinese export to us by the containership. But still, it goes to the point that (at least “47%” of) people do not wish to work and be productive when they are entitled to sit on their ass and spend other people’s money. If we had a culture of manual labor smashing big rocks into quarry process, people would appreciate the value of producing a product. It’s like healthscare costs, who cares when someone else is paying for it?


14 posted on 10/15/2015 3:14:04 PM PDT by Rodamala
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To: Rodamala

So, again, the root cause of our economic as well as social ills is really twofold with the deepest root being a personal, spiritual issue:

1) spiritual issue: leaving faith in God to rather put trust and confidence in man

2) economic and political issue: the resulting rise of the mostly unconstitutional $4 trillion federal government beast which in turn has created massive symptoms everywhere we turn.


15 posted on 10/16/2015 7:22:31 AM PDT by Jim W N
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