businesstrade.jpg

International Trade Sinks with the Baltic Dry Index

$
Daily Business Report
M A R K E T S
Mercantile
Article Archives
US Economic Forecast for 2012 and the Election Year Cycle
Shop the Local Merchant Economy
Right to Work vs Union State Economies
Rational Tariffs Lower Irrational Trade Deficits
International Business - Davos Style
Banking, Housing and Mortgages
David Stockman's Viewpoint on the Obama Budget Disaster
Regulations Harm Small Business and Protects Corporations
Gas Prices as an Indicator of Energy Costs
Governments Acting as Venture Capitalists
College Education Economics
Industrial Wind and the Production Tax Credit
Medicare and the Ryan Budget
U.S. Corporate Tax Rate Consequences
Corporate Spying and Intellectual Theft
The Foolish Exporting Natural Gas Policy
A Matter of Time for a VAT Tax
Big vs Small Bank Loans
Bankruptcy Trends in the Post Meltdown Era
Money Center Banks and Stricter Financial Oversight
Electric Power Generation under NYS Article X
Growth in the National Debt
Advantages of Chinese Trade Policy
Unemployment as a Lifestyle
Immigration Hurts American Employment
Bank for International Settlements on Big Banks
Small Business Assault from Obamacare
Compound Interest and the Debt Bubble
The Federal Centralization Economy
Parking Offshore Profits Hurt the Domestic Economy
The Record of Olympic Economics
Financial Algorithmic Trading
Goldman Sachs Above the Law
The MF Global Magical Mystery Tour
Destroying Internet Freedom by Taxation
The Permanent Unemployment Economy
Jackals of Jekyll Island - Federal Reserve Audit
QE3 Blowing Up the Debt Bubble
Riots Over Rotten Apple Mania
Gap Between College Costs and Inflation
Counterproductive Minimum Wage Mandates
Derivative Meltdown and Dollar Collapse
Central Banks Game Plan: One World Currency
European Commission Single Supervisory Mechanism
Lunacy of FEMA Hurricane Insurance Subsidy
Taxmageddon Holding Hands while Jumping Off the Cliff
The Direction of Equities in the Obama Economy
Is it FAIR to Tax the Rich out of Business?
California Dreaming: Bankruptcy, Pensions and Taxes
Pay Differential - Private Sector and Federal Government
Long History of HSBC Money Laundering
Swan Dive of 2013 Economy
Federal Reserve May Pause Quantitative Easing
The Economics of Sequestration
The state-owned Bank of North Dakota
Chinese Takeover with Free Trade Zones
Low Interest Rates Impoverish Savers
Bond Bubble Expectations
Currency Wars - Race to the Bottom
Government Subsidizes and Bankrupt Companies
Economics of Gun Control
Refuse to Buy or Sell with the Federal Government
The Cyprus Great Bank Robbery
Keystone Pipeline Blockage
Move Over IMF for the BRICS Development Bank
Obama Budget Proposes Cuts to Social Security and Medicare
The Risk and Reward of Bitcoins
Farm Supports and Social Welfare
Internet and Sale Taxes Dialectic
The Warren Buffett House of Cards
IRS as a Political Hit Squad
Revenue Budget Projections
Google and the NSA Connection
The Roubini - Faber Debate
Hydrofracking Boom or Bust
Goldman Sachs - first learn, then earn and serve
The Federal Reserve after Ben Bernanke
Implications of a Pyrrhic Real Estate Rebound
The New Normal: Part-Time Employmentyment
U.S. & Europe Trade Deal Honeymoon
Detroit City Bankruptcy Blues
J P Morgan and Commodity Manipulation
Strange Business Success Ventures
Business of Evangelism Religion
NFL Marketing Machine
Privacy Gone on Offshore Assets
Chinese Banks Quasi Government Institutions
Forecasts of a Doomed Economy
Financial Meltdown Five Years After
Corporate Profits and Worker Unemployment
Renminbi Soon to Be a Reserve Currency
Rehypothecation of Collateral
IMF Proposal to Tax Bank Deposits
Transfers excluded, JP Morgan Chase is Wired
Insurance Companies Profit from Obamacare
Climate Change by Executive Order
Economics of Non-governmental Organizations
Why Business Franchising is a Bad Deal
The Business of the Christmas Season
China Becomes Largest Trading Nation
Obamacare as a Jobs Killer
Does a 100 Trillion Debt Total Matter?
Underground Commerce is the Real Economy
Technology and the Future of Jobs
The Japanese Debt Economy
Individual Wealth in Perspective
Inevitability of Financial Bubbles
Russian Sanctions Backfire
Is the Dollar and Equities Ready to Crash?
Economic Reality of a Wealth Tax
How stable is the Bond Market?
Are International Stocks Safer than U.S. Equities?
David A. Stockman - The Great Deformation
Chinese and Japanese Deflationary Economies
Euro Crisis Deepens
Russia's SWIFT Settlement Alternative
The Swiss will not have more EU QE
Business of Global Warming Fraud
Economics of NYS Southern Tier Secession
Fear of IRS Tax Audits Diminish
Where is Global Economic Growth?
Government's share of minimum wage increase
Economic Growth Is Impossible
Replace the Business Cycle with Permanent Poverty
Who benefits from the lifting of Iranian sanctions?
Who Wins in a Currency Devaluation War?
Labor Day when there is no work
Municipal Bankruptcies and more on the way
Undeniable Social Security Demographics
Grinch that stole Christmass
Business Mergers Soar in 2015
The Chinese Market Crash
Driverless Vehicles Powered by Artificial Intelligence
U.S. Banks Ready for Negative Interest Rates?
International Trade Sinks with the Baltic Dry Index
SunEdison Green Power Bankruptcy Inevitability
Another Record Collection from Federal Taxes
Absurd Valuations on Unprofitable Tech Stocks
BREAKING ALL THE RULES
BREAKING ALL THE RULES Forum
BATR Index
hub
Corporatocracy
Forbidden History
Reign of Terror
Stuck on Stupid
Totalitarian Collectivism
Global Gulag
Inherent Autonomy
Radical Reactionary
Strappado Wrack
View from the Mount
Solitary Purdah
Dueling Twins
Varying Verity
911 War of Terror
HOPE

baltictradeindex.jpg

 

International Trade Sinks with the Baltic Dry Index

Economists and professional investors follow the Baltic Dry Index because it is a leading indicator on the forecast for international trade. A week ago this gauge hit an all time low. Since then a small upturn has moved the index upward slightly. Hellenic Shipping News observes in Baltic Dry Index climbs to 349, up 7.

“Baltic Dry Index is compiled by the London-based Baltic Exchange and covers prices for transported cargo such as coal, grain and iron ore. The index is based on a daily survey of agents all over the world. Baltic Dry hit a temporary peak on May 20, 2008, when the index hit 11,793. The lowest level ever reached was on Wednesday the 10th of February 2016, when the index dropped to 290 points.”

Some financial advisors believe the bottom has taken place. Even if shipping starts to return to levels that keeps the industry profitable, the prospects for a positive trading balance have no prospects to enrich our country.

Read the government’s own Bureau of Economic Analysis just released on March 4, 2016.

“The Department of Commerce, announced today that the goods and services deficit was $45.7 billion in January, up $1.0 billion from $44.7 billion in December, revised.  January exports were $176.5 billion, $3.8 billion less than December exports. January imports were $222.1 billion, $2.8 billion less than December imports.

The January increase in the goods and services deficit reflected an increase in the goods deficit of $1.1 billion to $63.7 billion and an increase in the services surplus of $0.1 billion to $18.0 billion.

Year-over-year, the goods and services deficit increased $2.1 billion, or 4.8 percent, from January 2015. Exports decreased $12.5 billion or 6.6 percent. Imports decreased $10.5 billion or 4.5 percent.”

Now these figures have become routine, but the apologists for the “Free Trade” rip-off have another obstacle that complicates their false promises of beneficial trade practices. China is experiencing a deep contraction in domestic indices activity.  Reuters’ account that China Feb official factory PMI seen shrinking for 7th month, documents that the market for U.S. exports to Red China is collapsing. The net result is obvious.

The Wall Street Journal reports on some ominous news in At U.S. Ports, Exports Are Coming Up Empty. “Major gateways say more ocean containers are shipping out empty, a sign of weak demand in troubled global markets and the tough sell American exporters face abroad.”

This trend has been building for a long time. Zero Hedge publishes an important article, A Third Of All Containers Shipped From Long Beach Port Are Empty, that illustrates the consequences of this one way street of wealth transfer.

“In short: only an economist, either a tenured one or one employed by CNBC, is unable to see that the world is sinking into a global trade recession, with a economic one soon to follow.

Net trade feeds directly into GDP, so the next time an idiot tells you that there are no direct linkages or contagion choke points between China and the US, feel free to take them to the Long Beach and show them the thousands of empty boxes whose contents one can label simply as "recession".

The reality of this sacred globalist tenant of “interdependence” is that the United States is financing and keeping afloat the cracking Chinese economy. The more America buys from China, the quicker the transfer of money outflow accelerates. Now that US exports are hitting a brick wall, the recession that is ravaging Asia is becoming the next biggest import.

The Baltic Dry Index is a hard standard of measurement to ignore. All the double talk that the financial press can muster will not alter the barren container ships riding high in the water back to pick up more inventories for sale to a suicidal consumer country.

In addition to the Evergreen Marine and Maersk fleet rumbling at half efficiency, the Epic oil glut sparks super tanker 'traffic jams' at sea.

“It's a "super tanker traffic jam," said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at ClipperData.

Smith first noticed the maritime congestion popping up a month ago off the coast of Singapore. That was alarming because Asia accounts for one-third of global oil demand.

"It was kind of strange to see. The ships didn't have any buyers," he said.

And then ClipperData discovered a similar phenomenon off China and even the Arabian Gulf.

"There just appears to be more oil than can be dealt with. They haven't got anywhere to put it," said Smith.”

This is definitive evidence that a worldwide recession is already dragging down economic activity. Transferring liquid financial instruments electronically is nothing like moving cargo across the seas. Trade depends upon a market that has demand for products.

It would be folly to believe that reciprocity is not required to maintain an international trading system. This criterion has not been present for many decades. The slowdown in commercial activity between nations offers an opportunity to correct the imbalance that the globalists have forced upon trading practices.

The unmistakable response is to re-industrialize our own domestic capacity. If foreign countries are wallowing in their own domestic economic quagmire, why should America continue buying their wears and keep propping up their balance sheets?

America was once the greatest maritime trading nation. Today, our ports are mere foreign depositories. Off loading has replaced export shipping. What is so difficult to understand?

With the collapse of the Baltic Dry Index, an intelligent and prudent country would reverse course and steer a chart that casts off the odious trade agreements that have systemically dismantled our domestic capacity and has destroyed our independent economic nation.

This point alone, explains the fear within the globalist community that is reflected in the most disgusting assault on the Trump movement in the 2016 election campaign. Cries to devalue the U.S. Dollar even more is no resolution. Such measures only play into the hands of the betrayers of a viable American economy.

James Hall – March 9, 2016

Subscribe to the BATR Realpolitik Newsletter

Discuss or comment about this essay on the BATR Forum

a free speech forum open to the public
BATRforum.gif

This site  The Web 

marketslogo.gif

tumblr page counter