WASHINGTON (AFP) — The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that the world economy, reeling from financial crisis, was on track to shrink for the first time in 60 years in 2009, by as much as 1.0 percent. In a report prepared for the Group of 20 meeting of finance chiefs last week in Britain […]
From Calculated Risk: The Dept of Transportation reports on U.S. Traffic Volume Trends: [T]ravel during January 2009 on all roads and streets in the nation changed by -3.1 percent (-7.0 billion vehicle miles) resulting in estimated travel for the month at 222.4 billion vehicle-miles. The graph shows the annual change in the rolling 12 month […]
From Calculated Risk: Total housing starts were at 583 thousand (SAAR) in February, well off the record low of 477 thousand in January (the lowest level since the Census Bureau began tracking housing starts in 1959). Single-family starts were at 357 thousand in February; just above the record low in January (353 thousand). … Housing […]
It’s interesting that there seems to be a long-term declining trend. And, of course, there’s the cliff we’re falling over currently. From Calculated Risk: The Federal Reserve reported that industrial production fell 1.4% in February, and output in February was 11.2% below February 2008. The capacity utilization rate for total industry fell to 70.9%, matching […]
From Calculated Risk: This graph is based on the Manufacturing and Trade Inventories and Sales report from the Census Bureau. This shows the 3 month change (annualized) in manufacturers’ and trade inventories. The inventory correction was slow to start in this recession, but inventories are now declining sharply. This change in inventories will probably have […]
From Calculated Risk: …This graph shows the loaded inbound and outbound traffic at the port of Los Angeles in TEUs (TEUs: 20-foot equivalent units or 20-foot-long cargo container). Although containers tell us nothing about value, container traffic does give us an idea of the volume of goods being exported and imported. Inbound traffic was 35% […]
From Calculated Risk. I’d like to try fitting a curve to that nonlinear growth post-Jan 2006. Parabolic? Exponential? The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims: In the week ending March 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 654,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 645,000. The […]
From Calculated Risk: From Brad Setser: The fall in China’s exports caught up with the fall in China’s imports, at least for now After soaring for most of this decade — the pace of China’s export growth clearly turned up in 2002 or 2003 and then stayed at a very high pace — China’s exports […]
By Simon Gardner PUERTO CHACABUCO, Chile (Reuters) – A deadly fish virus and scarce credit have clobbered the salmon sector in Chile, the world’s No. 2 producer, and industry workers like Cecilia Leue are panicked. Packing choice cuts of bright orange Atlantic salmon at a plant in the town of Puerto Chacabuco in Chilean Patagonia, […]
Hard times hit, and we slowly disappear. By Susan Straight At night, I can hear the soft thumps as the rats land on my roof. They launch themselves from the branches of the apricot tree because they want to get inside my attic, into a house with heat. The house next door, and the one […]
