Intermodal Down Sharply as Weekly Rail Traffic Sli

[HardTimeTrucker]

TRAFFIC WORLD

Intermodal Down Sharply as Weekly Rail Traffic Slips

December 19, 2008


Rail freight traffic plunged in the week ending Dec. 6, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Total volume on U.S. railroads was 31.2 billion ton-miles, down 2.6 billion ton-miles or 7.7 percent from week 50 a year ago. Intermodal volume totaled 216,364 trailers or containers, down 9.8 percent, as containers fell 7.6 percent and trailers skidded 16.5 percent.

Carload freight, which doesn't include intermodal data, totaled 301,120 cars for the week, down 8.5 percent on-year. Loadings were down 13.6 percent in the East and 4.8 percent in the West.

Only two of 19 carload commodity groups improved from the 2007 period. Coal gained 5.3 percent while the “all other” group rose 8.3 percent.

A weak harvest contributed to a 9.4-percent drop in grain shipments. Motor vehicle traffic, under the shadow of the threat of bankruptcy for the big three automakers, fell 43.1 percent. Waste and scrap shipments, an indicator for manufacturing, decreased by 30.6 percent. Lumber and wood products, a signal for construction, dived 37.6 percent. Chemicals, another manufacturing indicator, slipped 20.3 percent.

[petedabroker]

As I said before and will say again, get the guns in a safe and easy to find place, buy all the ammo you can get your hands on, get security camera's in place, stock the canned goods to the top of the pantry, and watch all the MAD MAX movies you can get your hands on for some pointers. Its getting bad. What was stated above by Hardtimetrucker gives a pure and true indication as to how this economy has fallen. All one needs to do is watch the transportation industry , which has always been the bottleneck of our economy. Everything we import, export, buy and sell moves via rail, road, or ocean or combination thereof. So just look at the transportation figures to see a clear version of just how the overall economy is heading. The only thing that industry does not provide is sales figures. Yes, it moves, but is it selling. Above states automotive industry fell 43.1% , but sales are off 87.6%. Coal is off 42% due to the current price of oil, which is below $35.00/barrel. One industry that has not suffered so far, is the beer industry, which is 3% above last years totals. Does that tell you something? I saw a piece on Iceland the other night, which has no banks left, no industry working except fishing, and the whole country now shops at GoodWill Stores. Monopoly money is worth more than an Icelandic dollar. Just two years ago their economy grew at a 47% GPA. Housing increased at 27% per year, and projects were booming. Now projects sit idle, no work, no industry.

We are all heading for socialism. I do not lie, I do not exaggerate, I tell the truth here. Each and every day we see our government bail out banks, auto industry, next the credit card industry, after that who knows. Now when the government bails out industry, who owns those businesses? The government of course. So what is Socialism, government owned business. We need to let the pieces fall and pick them up later and re-build, re-tool our industries. It cleans out the bad companies. That was the great thing about fair and open markets. They cleaned themselves up. Free enterprise is now dead. All industries are being supported by our government. Capitalism is a dying way of life. Remember Socialism also comes with total control. Good for the masses sort of thing. It stymies independent thinking. It did not work in Russia, China, or Eastern Block, and now you will get a large dose of it here. They will have cities under Marshall Law. I have no idea if this was a master plan by someone, but I do know its all heading in that direction.

Ok lets say the auto industry dies as we know it today. Tomorrow under Capitalism, another guy opens up a small garage, finds a way to get a new type of carburetor that gets 70 mpg, he starts to hire, build and produce different types of autos. That is capitalism at its best. He hires workers, they make salaries, pay taxes, they buy TV sets, washers, dryers, computers, and all those industries are working again. We are now prompting up dying industry. We will be left with the bones of the auto industry.

Toyota does not make a better car than Ford. Toyota does however not have the legacy cost that Ford has. Why? Because they are new to the U.S. markets and their work force has not retired yet. That simple. We can compete with anyone given equal playing field. Our own industries killed America. How? By investing in overseas markets. You have a country like Brazil, who had no real automotive industry to speak of. Now Ford opens up a mega plant and moves 8% of their production into Brazil. Yes, for a temporary basis they save money. But in the long run they killed jobs here, the very folks that buy their goods. See what is wrong, see how it all came down. Stupid industry focused on short term profits, to satisfy their stock owners. Remember one very important factor here in the U.S.A. , we are self sufficient. Yes, we can live here without imports of cheap China tools, we can make anything we want. When NAFTA came about , it was good for only Mexico and developing countries and had nothing to give to America. I blame Clinton for all our woes. It was not Bush, although he is a complete idiot, but it was Clinton who put all the things into motion we now suffer from. It was Clinton who allowed 40-1 leveraging of our banking institutions. It was Clinton who allowed Hedge Funds to exist. Yes, blame Bush on wars, and being an A.S.S.H.O.L.E., but blame Clinton for doing what is now happening. He was the master planner here. So you love Clinton, good, I hope you keep loving Clinton. All the way to his legacy of destruction.