The Global Economy May Be Much Worse Than You Think

After a terrible week for the US stock market, which was triggered by the crashing Chinese markets as well as other geopolitical events such as North Korea, there are other things happening that make the outlook bleak.

Today, the Baltic Dry Index hit it's all time record low. For those who are unfamiliar with this index, it tracks the shipping of raw materials and commodities worldwide. Some financial experts have asserted that the Baltic Dry Index is a leading indicator of the direction of the overall stock markets.

The index being at the level it is today, means global shipping and commerce is quite possibly at the lowest level it has been in decades. This is an ominous sign for the world markets.

You can read more about the index here:

en.wikipedia.org...
www.bloomberg.com...:IND

All media is forbidden to tell the truth. All money ONLY has worth when the people believe it does. The whole house of cards could come crashing down at any time and it would be an avalanche.

Hrm, well I found this from March last year:

THE Baltic Dry Index (BDI), which measures the rates for chartering the giant ships that transport iron ore, coal and grain, has long attracted the attention of commentators hoping to take the pulse of world trade. The cost of shifting the basic raw materials that are the ingredients of steel, energy and food supposedly provides a leading indicator of the state of the world economy. If so the forecast would suggest that a storm at sea will shortly make landfall. The index, a composite of rates charged on a variety of important trade routes, has hit an all-time low, after sinking by 65% in the past 13 weeks alone. Even in the depths of the financial crisis shipping rates kept their heads further above water (see chart). Why are they so remarkably low now?

Link



It may be low, but it seems the global economy has adapated to this low over the years following our descent into depression.

I think this will probably be the beginning of the global recession triple dip? or whatever they wanna call it, to be fair.

a reply to: TheChrome

Buy more food.

a reply to: pl3bscheese

You can never hang your hat on one thing or the other. What makes this interesting though, is that I talked to two people I know. One works with a maritime shipping container company, and the other works in trucking. Both said the businesses are slow right now. Why are goods not moving at normal levels?

infolurker

Buy more food.

And eat out less...right now is a good time to watch your personal spending habits and figure out what your needs vs wants are.

a reply to: TheChrome

It's all those damned diet fads! Nah, I mean honestly if you look around this country we've been built out with a ton of goods for some time. For the last 8 years or so people have been letting go of their belief that they need new things just cause the nice advertisements tell them it's true. Heck, how many people skip commercials altogether now? This was the first year our family didn't bother with gifts around the holidays. We went from a ton of gifts, to fewer post 2007, to one or two the last few years to none this last year. We had an awesome time, nonetheless!

You know we've had automated truckers on the roads for a full year now. Hope that can help keep the trucking companies afloat.

originally posted by: Skywatcher2011
infolurker

Buy more food.

And eat out less...right now is a good time to watch your personal spending habits and figure out what your needs vs wants are.

Exactly so much money is spent on waste, we sometimes drive for a few hours, stop for a bite to eat and a coffee. For two people a pie a bun and a coffee, came to about thirty dollars, so now we fill a thermos, and make a sandwich, the cost is now about three dollars. This type of thinking can permeate your whole economic experience, with no drop in your quality of life. Take the OP shops , compared to regular store prices, a good chair or bed costs a fraction of the retail price. Clothing that just needs a wash we are awash with goods

The BDI is telling us the engine of the worlds economy has stalled. So regardless of near term consequences (stock market collapse, USD collapse) what does that mean to the average person on the street.

At least :
Higher levels of unemployment
Higher taxes for the smaller employment base;
Retirement postponed to your dead.

Possibly:
Possible food shortages as economies collapse.
Underground economies that trade in goods or services expand;
Gangs take control of streets.

Wouldn't surprise:
Expansion of the wars of plunder result in a world war.

s

originally posted by: glend
The BDI is telling us the engine of the worlds economy has stalled. So regardless of near term consequences (stock market collapse, USD collapse) what does that mean to the average person on the street.

At least :
Higher levels of unemployment
Higher taxes for the smaller employment base;
Retirement postponed to your dead.

Possibly:
Possible food shortages as economies collapse.
Underground economies that trade in goods or services expand;
Gangs take control of streets.

Wouldn't surprise:
Expansion of the wars of plunder result in a world war.

I think we are seeing it now, the BDI has been down for quite a while, and the wars in the poor countries have been taking off with fervour. Causing this massive refugee crisis. Most people will react to poverty with some form of anger and aggression, its just the degree..

it probably means that the fed will reduce the interest rates......
as if that fraction of a percentage would actually make that much of difference one way or another.
it also means that production has slowed, possibly because they overproduced again. so, well, more unemployment, at least for the few of us who still work producing a product.
and knowing my luck, it probably also means that I'll have a third son moving in with me next month since he's already told me that the company his company does work for is decreasing their employees by an outrageous amount.

all I can say is someone in the house better start working some steady hours, win big in the lottery of something or I'll probably won't be anywhere to be found soon.

originally posted by: dawnstar
it probably means that the fed will reduce the interest rates......
as if that fraction of a percentage would actually make that much of difference one way or another.
it also means that production has slowed, possibly because they overproduced again. so, well, more unemployment, at least for the few of us who still work producing a product.
and knowing my luck, it probably also means that I'll have a third son moving in with me next month since he's already told me that the company his company does work for is decreasing their employees by an outrageous amount.

all I can say is someone in the house better start working some steady hours, win big in the lottery of something or I'll probably won't be anywhere to be found soon.

With any luck the people that have collected all the money, might just realise that they have a poisoned chalice , it seems to be a historical fact, that if poverty gets over a certain per centage, they seem to loose the lot.

Everything is fine.

Take personal responsibility and work harder.

Stop complaining.

Pick yourself up by your bootstraps.

It's your fault.

Check out my latest thread about how they are adding 200 million robot programmer jobs to the US alone.

If you didn't see the writing on the wall ...

If you have not acquired the weapons necessary ...

If you're not stocked up on ammunition ...

...

Stay away from my ant hill ... cricket.

originally posted by: Skywatcher2011
And eat out less...right now is a good time to watch your personal spending habits and figure out what your needs vs wants are.

Eat out less and people working in those places will be out of a job and eventually they won't be able to spend in whatever we are working in and then WE lose our jobs.

What you are suggesting would hurt the local economy which is not a good idea.

If you want to cut, cut in products that come from other countries. Cut in your 4th TV and your 8th Cellphone.
Buy from competitors not from the leaders. Buy AMD, not Intel for example.

a reply to: theMediator

Eventually everyone will have to bite the bullet and deal with the pain, one way or the other.

I would rather know when it is about to happen instead of being caught un-prepared.

The system was never meant to be permanent.

Nothing is....

originally posted by: theMediator


If you want to cut, cut in products that come from other countries. Cut in your 4th TV and your 8th Cellphone.
Buy from competitors not from the leaders. Buy AMD, not Intel for example.

Well, AMD vs Intel? No way would I purchase AMD, they're power hungry, and give less performance per watt$$ in almost all categories. They're both really freaking large companies, I fail to see how keeping AMD limping along does much good. ARM is hopefully the new AMD, coprocessors + RISC tech seems to be superior in the trending mobile appliances. Intel is so far having issues competing effectively in that market.

I don't necessarily understand the buy locally meme, either. People the world over are coming online to the global economy by making products other people buy.

a reply to: Snarl

Stock up all you want, but those who survive while being un-prepared are the ones who will really benefit from your preparations when you run out of trinkets and have to learn how to do things the old way from them.

This ain't no TV show.

a reply to: MyHappyDogShiner

So what do you suppose will be the cause of a SHTF scenario? We have an abundance of cheap energy, cheap food, and surplus all around. Why would the world economy suddenly stop just cause? I wonder what is going on with people upstairs who feel this way. It must be a projection of some sort of internal disarray onto the world at large.

a reply to: pl3bscheese

When the events that generate the data occur simultaneously, the data which is offset by a certain time period in most cases.

It will probably be environmental in nature where production of food and energy are interrupted or slowed, which will cause those illogical humans to have themselves another one of those war things.

Wars always fix everything. After people tire of losing loved one's and demand an end to it, they completely forget what it was that preceded it and jump right into the same crap as before.

Governments and business just love wars.

People forget.