CHEERFUL ECONOMIC NEWS: “Tens of thousands of boxcars are sitting idle all over the country, parked indefinitely by railroads whose freight volumes have plummeted along with the economy. . . . Railroads, which have seen shipping volumes drop by double-digit percentages in recent months, face a particularly vexing problem. The nation’s five largest railroads have put more than 30% of their boxcars — 206,000 in all — into storage, according to the Association of American Railroads. Placed end-to-end, the cars would stretch from New York to Salt Lake City.”

Plus, a Chinese real estate bust that makes ours look minor. “By Rodman’s calculations, 500 million square feet of commercial real estate has been developed in Beijing since 2006, more than all the office space in Manhattan. And that doesn’t include huge projects developed by the government. He says 100 million square feet of office space is vacant — a 14-year supply if it filled up at the same rate as in the best years, 2004 through ’06, when about 7 million square feet a year was leased.”