Posted on 01/21/2016 7:59:13 AM PST by Sgt_Schultze
A measure of international trade often seen as a bellwether for the global economy has crashed to its lowest level ever, fueling fears we could be heading for another 2008-style crash.
Back in November, the Baltic Dry Index dropped below 500 for the first time in recorded history, and it has kept falling ever since. On Wednesday morning it fell to a low of 369.
To put that into perspective, the index was as high as 1,222 in August, and it has fallen 84% from a recent peak of 2,330 in late 2013.
The Baltic Dry Index measures how much it costs to ship "dry" commodities around the world â raw materials like grain and steel.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Obama is celebrating this new economy.
I’m resigned to seeing a 9,000 Dow. I hope to God it stops there. I retire in four months.
Does not sound like he knows what “Canary in a coal mine” means...
pay off all your bills,
stock up on non-perishables.
and ammo
In new economy, people eat carbon credits, drinking from data stream, living in a house made out of thin air. No need for raw materials.:-)
Finally, the sea levels will lower from their lack of displacing sea water and Obama will be able to fulfill his 2008 campaign promise.
P!
Think of each cargo container as a future secure home in a warm climate.
Why pay off all of your bills if the SHTF? You think bill collectors are going to show up during the collapse?
I always understood it to be a precursor of danger. Warning miners of dangerous gas levels. The canary would die as a warning to get out of the mine. What is your understanding of the term? The BDI is a warning of possible future trouble.
I think what is going to happen is, a lot of manufacturing will return to America from China, Mexico, Korea, Japan and everywhere else.
That will mean a lot of companies which sold out America will lose quite a (large) amount of money soon. That is true.
But it will be, because America will be making more of that stuff.
This will be very good for our economy. But companies which sold every thing to China, will lose quite a lot soon.
That will impact the markets, on balance, while the manufacturing is returning stateside.
But it will be very good for America.
I don't pretend to understand the BDI, but doesn't this chart show an up spike to around 11,000 just prior to plummeting in late 2008? Where's that canary?
It is very low but not so out of the norm. Problem seems to be oversupply of shipping brought on by the huge bubble of 2008-2009. BDI was over 10,000 in 2008, 2009. Then cratered. Companies built tons of huge container ships for China market etc. For a perspective check out this site. Shows BDI from inception in 1985.
https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch7en/conc7en/bdi.html
Yeah, but that stuff only goes so far. Ever see “Gangs of New York” where the mobs overwhelm the rich people-—who were armed?
What we don’t have this time is a massive housing bubble with a trillion dollars of mortgage paper about to default. The BDI is indicating recession but we don’t have a recipe for a replay of 2008.
While I believe that the BDi is a good measure for windage purposes one should be careful not to overlook the fact that new massive container ships hit the market during the last five years. Many more expensive to operate ships were put out to pasture. That said I also watch the units in transit and it has taken a downturn as your chart shows.
Go to cash if you think that.
I’m in NM so I’ll have to order some to live in.
If this article does not do it for you then read David Stockman’s article “Soon Comes The Deluge” which was up on Tuesday on his site. Its a must read.
The view from my little rowboat (that I happen to own free and clear)
A container ship certainly looks too big to fail.
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