I am scratching my head here (not really). According to most people in the mainstream, political and financial media the US Economy is on fire. At the same time, despite the appearance of this debt driven economic miracle happening in front of our eyes, at least the Baltic Dry Index (the index of global shipping costs) is not buying it.
The index is down 75% in a little over a year and is now hitting levels unseen since 1986. In other words, if this does not suggest a massive global slow down while piercing the bubble of “perceived” economic prosperity, I don’t know what will.
Need more evidence? Fine, how about this. In their biggest drop since May of 2009, Chinese imports have collapsed 19.9% year-over-year in January, missing expectations of a modest 3.2% increase. Their worst miss since the peak of the financial crisis in 2008. So, if the US Economy is so great, why is global trade collapsing? I don’t think it takes a genius to figure it out.
