Your Scary-Ass Chart of the Day
January 22nd, 2013 - 9:01 am
Railroad traffic — almost all industrial or commercial these days — always falls after the holidays. But this year it fell to levels not seen since the ugly times of 2008
Leading economic indicator, anybody?
The only way that low-information voters will be convinced that this is not directly because of the actions of Republicans in Congress is if they immediately pass bills with names like “The 2013 Emergency North American Railroad Traffic Rescue Act”. The content of the bills doesn’t matter, because it will either be mis-reported or not reported. Only the soundbites matter.
Trillions later and we’re back where we started.
I didn’t build that.
We owe everything to the National Socialist Workers Party.
It’s not so much the depths of the drop (although that’s bad enough), it’s the how precipitous it is.
Dayamn.
I’d stopped watching the retail price of diesel fuel relative to gasoline lately, but something tells me it’ll be coming down…
Who gains, who loses? IIRC, the Oracle of Omaha is a big investor in railroads. Why is this important? Think oil shipments, pipelines and crony capitalism at work. If pipelines don’t get built, then the oil has to get shipped somehow. Railroads perhaps? And who is willing to pay a bit more in taxes to reap huge windfalls? Hmm.. Let me guess.
Here is the link:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-23/buffett-s-burlington-northern-among-winners-in-obama-rejection-of-pipeline.html
He may look like your grandfather but he is as corrupt as the worst of them.
Drive by your local truck stop and see all the parked trucks waiting for a load assignment. Note that truckiging companies will put as many loads as practical on the rail to save costs. Post Xmas is always slow, but this is extreme and is killing owner operators with truck payments.
i think a look at the Baltic Dry Index (ocean freight) will show a similar drop in january.
I’ve tried to make allowances for my natural paranoia but more and more I believe my brethren conspiracy nuts, that Obama and company sees the wrecking of the US economy as a feature not a bug. I think he and his think they can use the wreck to take total control. I suspect that it won’t work. In their march through the institutions of control, communications, and culture they’ve weakened their ability to help the left out. How are those lay offs working out for you Democrat supporting reporters?
Not to ruin a good story and graph, BUT, wasn’t there a short-lived strike by port clerical workers in Nov-Dec 2012 that the longshoremen’s union “honored” and would not cross the picket line?
That MAY be what the drop is really reflecting…just sayin’.
Just wondering if oil pipeline flows might be at play here. In addition to the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway projects TransCanada and Enbridge run pipeline networks across the US and Canada. There have been plans in the works to reverse flows on numerous pipes to move crude from midwestern storage to refinery complexes along the Gulf of Mexico and the S. Lawrence river. Up to now, that crude has been transported largely by rail but might the reversed pipes already be diverting customers away from the iron ponies?
I just saw this piece of biz news and thought of this posting again.
You know all that cheap natural gas now flooding the US market? It is displacing coal. Gas gets piped to markets while coal goes by train. Less coal = less rail traffic.
So the answer to your question “Leading economic indicator?” is “Yes, but not necessarily a bad one.”