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Something Just Snapped: Container Freight Rates From Asia To Europe Crash 23% In One Week
One of the few silver linings surrounding the hard-landing Chinese economy in recent weeks has been the surprising resilience and strength of the Baltic Dry Index: even as Chinese commodity demand has cratered in 2015, this "index" has more than doubled in the past few months from all time lows, and at last check was hovering just over 1,100.
Many were wondering how it was possible that with accelerating deterioration across all Chinese asset classes, not to mention the bursting of various asset bubbles, could global shippers demand increasingly higher freight rates, an indication of either a tight transportation market or a jump in commodity demand, neither of which seemed credible.
We may have the answer.
It appears that the recent spike in shipping rates was analogous to the dead cat bounce in crude oil prices: a speculator-driven anticipation for a sustainable rebound that never took place. And now, just like with crude prices, it is all crashing down.... again.
According to Reuters, shipping freight rates for transporting containers from ports in Asia to Northern Europe dropped 22.8 per cent to $400 per 20-foot container (TEU) in the week ended last Friday, data from the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index showed.

Freight rates on the world’s busiest shipping route have tanked this year due to overcapacity in available vessels and sluggish demand for transported goods. Rates generally deemed profitable for shipping companies on the route are at about US$800-US$1,000 per TEU. In other words, at current prices shippers are losing half a dollar on every booked contractual dollar at current rates.
According to Shanghai data, it was the third consecutive week of falling freight rates on the world’s busiest route. Container freight rates have so far increased in 5 weeks this year but fallen in 23 weeks.
In the week to Friday, container freight rates fell 24 percent from Asia to ports in the Mediterranean, fell 4.4 per cent to ports on the US West Coast and were down 3.7 per cent to ports on the US East Coast.
Maersk Line, the global market leader with more than 600 vessels and part of Danish oil and shipping group AP Moller-Maersk, was one of the few container shipping companies to make a profit last year. The company controls around one fifth of all transported containers from Asia to Europe.
Should the dead cat bounce in shipping rates indeed be over, and if the accelerate slide continues at the current pace, not only will shippers mothball key transit lanes, but the biggest concern for global economy, the unprecedented slowdown in world trade volumes, which we flagged a week ago, will be not only confirmed but is likely to unleash yet another global recession.
Unless, of course, central planners learn how to print trade and quite soon at that...
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YIKES.....desparate times require desparate measures...Lets see, we were charging 100 bucks now just 76... anyone need moar stuff?
Bullish.
Shit.
I can't even type that with a straight face.
Technology is lowering the cost of transportation!
With fuel costs being the seemingly biggest cost and half of what it was a year or so ago...this doesnt bode well....
So i run a trucking company in the U.S. and my biggest cost (fuel) is half of what it was a year or so ago and Im driopping
my Frieght rates 20 plus percent? IM FUCKED FOR SURE...
No problem, just turn world wide QE on Max setting, that will fix
Bullish scrap yards.
You Know they are tight enough to pull a real profit.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324339/Worlds-biggest-ship-grav...
"Bullish scrap yards. "
I foresee a lot of ships and containers sunk in certain shallow reefs, covered in sand and cement, evntually to be sold as luxury islands to rich Chinese...
It's all because of them electric cars, silly!
Just because the Commie chinks can do it doesn't mean that we can.
(gimme a coupla days to research a spot for a powerpoint present.)
Don't BTFD you fucking idiot?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug0PKn97elY
So 'merican consumer still good, right? Mmmhmm, sounds like time to BTFATH!!!
Hang on, is this good news or bad news. I mean, on ZH we half want the end time financial singularity to come, and now that it looks pretty good for next month, that's bad. And here the El Nino is supposed to dump continuous epic powder at Tahoe this winter.
$400 / TEU is MUCH lower than we are paying W Pacific ports to Callao, Peru.
How do you find out container rates online?
This is specific for China to Mediterranean rates. No reason for Peruvian rates to nosedive. Take a look at the economic powerhouses in and around the Mediterranean today. Any wonder why Chinese exports TO that area are plummeting? I really don't see much of interest here - this is just a continuation of trends over the last couple of years.
On-line rates are hit-and-miss. Bimco has a nice chart:
https://www.bimco.org/Reports/Market_Analysis/2015/0615_ContainerSMOO201...
Still, rates to Peru must have dropped a bit from - say a year or two ago for you, right?
Thank you!
Re rates for us, almost all of our cargo is LCL, but with containerload pricing, I would be able to calculate expected ocean freight even so.
I would have to check with our people there in Lima to know if rates are lower to Peru than before. Your comment re China - Med rates seem logical.
EDIT: I would guess that the US West Coast trend would be most like ours.
Fell 23% to Europe and fell 4.4% to LA. This seems to say more about Europe than about shipping rates.
We are still paying $7500 / container Osaka to West Coast Port. Same as its always been.
Crank it up to 11!
Greece.
No ticky. No laundry.
I don't need more stuff. I'm tired of bending down and picking shit up everytime I turn a corner or walk thru a doorway.
I just need to convince the wiff that the lust for stuff is wrong and I am right.
Wish me luck!
My wife changed out the rug in the living room four times last week. Back and forth to the store. Up and down the stairs to grab new shit that hasn't even been used. She's nuts. But I try to let it go.
Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic is a good analogy. I try to explain what is going on, she just doesn't get it. ( big fan of The Bachlorette).
32 years into this. We should both win a prize.
Ok, I am trying to come up with something of value to say that would help you but I have drawn a blank. I can't imagine what you must be going through to live with such a vacuous person. Hopefully she makes up for this in other ways.
I finally replaced my bathroom rug when all of the rubber backing had worn off and I slipped on it so badly I damn near landed on my butt. My solution? Ask Mr when he was going to Costco to pick up another. What color do you want? Nothing bright and garish. The sky blue one he picked out is fine. I hate shopping. That part of society digging for deals like locusts leaving destruction in their wake disturbs me. I can tell it gives them a strange high just looking at their eyes.
Maybe I should watch that show Bachelorette to get a better understanding because I don't know what that is. But lacking a TV would make that difficult. You have my condolences and admiration. I would be unable to live the life you are leading and I hope you don't drink yourself to death.
Miffed
The younger you are the more brain cells in head #2.
Dave Ramsey
*Full disclosure, RafterMan bought a new bike 2 weeks ago. Because fun.
Pretty sure Palahniuk said it first, but yeah.
Thanks, Miffed.
The only son is turning thirty in a week. And moving across country, in two weeks. He just got a new job. He is very secure in his employment. He could easily get another job close to home, if he wants or needs to. We will leave it at that!
So wifey is throwing a party. And she is obsessed. I DO MEAN OBSESSED! So the honey do list, on my only day of the week at home, caused some fraying of the nerves today. I'm being polite. I would not have been surprised if the neighbors got an earfull. No, they heard me, no doubt.
I can usually just let it slide off, like water off a duck's ass. I am a combat veteran. But there are those days. This was one.
Ahhh....I feel better. Thanks for letting me share.
Reading your post and Miffed's reply makes me think of my own life. I married a woman more like miffed than not. I divorced a woman more like your wife than miffed. Noticing the transformation was difficult as it was very slow. Oh well, people change I guess.
It sounds like your wife is throwing a party that she would want without consulting your son's wishes. I can't imagine a 30 year old man would care much about a rug. It seems to me the solution would be for both of you to agree to ask your son what he would like to do for his party. But seeing the dynamics going on, this probably wouldn't work and conflict would just increase. I guess some situations have no resolutions.
You as a retired veteran have lived life in the raw and have come home alive. This will make you look at life differently. Sometimes I wish there were a way women could experience life as you did and then appreciate the world they have now. If I were a marital counselor, I'd send the women to Maturation Island for a month where they would try to survive on their own. I think this would solve impulsive rug purchasing. Can't think of anyone that would pay for my services tho...
You will be in my thoughts and prayers.
Good Luck.
Miffed;-)
Obsessing over rugs and parties indicates deeper issues. There may be some undiagnosed OCD. The solution for no pension is to control his woman. If she's not a responsible, mature person on her own -- take away the check books and credit cards and put her on a budget.
Despite feminism's claims otherwise, women want a strong man to lead them. If you don't provide that leadership they lose respect for you and have these bursts of crazy.
Borrow a bicycle.
At your age it's faster than running away.
You get out after 10 years in a lot of states.Manslaughter that is.
Inverse Bonds. MIA?
Tried, and couldn't get ZH chat to open.Adblocker or a filter stopping it.
NoPension, you should just be glad that your wife is easily amused by pointless moronic stuff. Having an aware spouse is not entirely a plus. Having a cheerful spouse is a truly enviable thing. But I think you know that already.
Man are you stupid. His wife is a narcissistic cunt like you.
You're back, dogbreath!!!!!! Lurking all this time, and now you spring out to attack!!!!!
You are really obsessed with me, LOL.
Obsessed?? hardly. Its just that you are such an amazingly stupid twat. But you are my favorite self cleaning blow up doll. How's that diet working for you.
...and I thought I was alone in having a crazy wife
I think you are in need of an EZ Reacher.
Your days of bending over to pick up crap will soon be over.
Concerning an EZ Reacher reminds me of Gran Torino.
https://youtu.be/xRVuU9jWbqU
Would you might videotaping that conversation with the wife and posting it up? I should have recorded mine- it was hysterical. Like I asked her to cut off her right arm or something. First thing she wanted to know was whether I had just lost my job (which would be pretty amazing since I'm self-employed). It didn't get any better from there out.
I came close to firing myself a few times; but I've always managed to talk myself into higher performance. Still, the knowledge that I don't consider myself indispensable to my ongoing operations keeps me slogging away. I don't want to look myself in the eyes, and tell myself that I have to let myself go.
You take it too serious, Rafterman. It's just business.
You think you got it rough Rafterman? I get fired nearly every afternoon for drinking on the job!
But every morning I am in the office early, making a pot of coffee and getting the day started, every damn day my boss makes me light his cigarette, clean his glasses, blow his nose and wipe his ass, sometimes he pulls up the SI body paint photos and makes me jack him off too!...
Its no wonder I drink on the job, working for such a dipshit...I wish I could get away from this damn guy, he pays well though, even buys me beer! And I'm familiar with his quirks and do my best to cover for him and overlook his faults..going on 56yrs now I have to deal with this guy...
I'm self employed
I hear lyme disolves bodies more quickly.
Just kidding, of course.
Hey, I think Ebola is the clear winner in this category. Filoviridae whups Borrelia's ass!
Ok, gotta cut back on the Percocet.
Borrelia...Think of it like Cancer...withut the benefit of Hemmoragic Death.
Borrelia whips my ass. And I refuse to use any of that Hydrocodone...Or is that Percocet an Oxycodone?
Now just where did I put that Sodium Hydroxide for Ms. No?
I think that is what she is looking for.
Yeah right, "moar stuff".
My sister used to 'clean' that shit in the Pacific Northwest before the "crash"; you know, the millions of Asian cars imported to the USA via the West Coast, The insects my sister saw every day coming off those containers would make you faint, vomit. I told her to take them to the Western Washington State labs straight away. You have no idea what "cheap stuff" really means: for indigenous forests, fields, etc. No, really. It has gone too far.
From the dead 'Chinese Imports' you mean?
A treasure worth more than all the Gold on the Planet;
*The American Chestnut Tree*
^^^currency^^^^
- decimated by imported chinese chestnut blight, the nail in the coffin.
Yellen Flop, give it up bitch raise rates !
"Unless, of course, central planners learn how to print trade and quite soon at that..."
Ha! They'll just print up fiat to finance the shipping of empty containers!
Expect a huge surge in container traffic, see, all's well!!!
//////
Mr.Yellen, is that you? ;-)
This is bullish.
Look at the bright side. The shipping contairners will make great tiny homes
You mean stacked low rent apartments with a nice ocean view..
Shipping containers ARE homes in Somalia. I hope they leave their doors open in the heat and paint the tops white...
You can use those containers to make bomb shelters and ammo stashes.
We have one on our property. They certainly make great storage containers but I will say in 100+ degree heat, unless you are partial to oven conditions, they are a tad stuffy.
Miffed;-)
Could be used as a weight loss 'solution' for all of the fatties inhaling little debbies on EBT cars....could be big business.
Yeah leave all the empty containers on the ship and rent them out as luxury cruise ship cabins.
Retirement condos.
If you thought securitization of property was a new thing, you need to look at the history
of the actual container biz.Their ownership is sliced and diced like those AAA RMBS, only
worse.I looked at the industry,in detail, back in the 1980's as an investment.It
was a colossal con job then, I doubt it got better with age.Pension funds were big (bag)holders.
A lot of multiplier effect if those containers don't ship at a good price,way outside the shipping biz.
Prices are down. That's good news, right?
Not in a highly leveraged, debt backed economy. Keynesian turns the world on its head. Inflation is good, savings is bad, men wear skirts and so on.
You forgot labor for fiat is worth-less and so are minimum wage hikes when one loses all value from it when...subsidized rent, food, electricty, water, sewer etc. are cutoff.
Maybe they should pass yet another law!
A real Catch-22 ;-)
It is good news. It means the shit show is soon over. The bombing begins 5 minutes later.
Just a random thought.
Chinese manufacturers, desperate to book sales they could then use for domestic loan collateral, could have created a temporary surge in traffic by offering generous "buy now, pay later" terms to its overseas markets.
This would, in turn, be followed by a drop-off in future orders unless additional demand took off-- which it obviously hasn't.
And I suspect that "buy now, pay later" terms are morphing into "pay much later, if ever", thus creating additional liquidity problems upstream.
Chinese manufacturers are shutting their doors left and right. Everything is going to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
In the past year 2500 new factories have popped up in Cambodia.
We are moving our bag production to Vietnam because our Chinese factory can't produce a bag at a price where we can remain competitive in the marketplace.
Our FOB for one bag was $16.50. One of our competitors was selling their bag for $25 retail. We can't give the retailer 60% margin when we pay $16.50. Our price needs to go to $8.
China is fucked because they can no longer compete in the zero sum game.
China is also making big investments in robots (recent ZH article and other sources).
For now, the Chinese bearing manufacturers we buy from are not moving operations. Probably best to be close to steel plants making a decent 52100.
Thanks. Pretty much confirms the evidence of my own lying eyes.
Too expensive for low end goods.
Lousy QC, intellectual property theft and jailing of local reps on the high end market.
Japanification rolls on.
Low birth rate: check.
Dependence on foreign raw materials: check.
Currency manipulation: check.
They better start being nicer to Charlie.
I have a Chinese family member who exports clothing from China to NYC. She had factories in Guangdong, but now they are in Vietnam and Bangladesh. The lowest skilled jobs in China are being outsourced. That doesn't mean the Chinese stopped making money. They built the factories, operate them, and take in profits.
Winner Winner, Top Sirloin, winner!
No joke... A few years back, I woke up hung over< and took this IQ test.
I won't tell you the results, but it was a lot of "hung-over" fun.
Paul Krugman call your office.
Your Container of inflatable dolls from China has arrived
Shipping companies should demand that the dolls be transported in an inflated state so as to increase the volume of their business.
"container freight rates fell 24 percent from Asia to ports in the Mediterranean "
Greece.
Greek banks are still shuttered. Businesses cannot access funds if they have funds, cannot recieve payments even if their debtors want to pay, cannot acquire letters of credit even if a bank knows the business is functional.
I also suspect that banks are becoming unwilling to generate loans and letters of credit to businesses that have Greek owners even if not based in Greece, businesses that have largly Greek customers, or who may even be associated with Greek banks and/or businesses, etc.
...Knock-on effects roiling Greece and anything even remotely associated with Greece...
Edit: I just saw Tarabel's post and I also agree with that observation/suspicion...
Good point about Greek letters of credit.
Agree that Pax & Cargo on Ships & Air Ships are often weighed and have mandatory calculations for all shipments or missions. Routes are reviewed for requirements such as tonnage, bridge restrictions, road restrictions, hazardous cargo, overhead clearance, legal restrictions, passage costs/fees/leasing fees, onloading/offloading/demurrage/blocking/bracing/strapping.
Telegraph article seems to indicate no problems for Greek Shipping Credit.
" According to Bloomberg, today’s leading Greek shipping magnates are John Angelicoussis, George Prokopiou, Peter Livanos and George Economou. Between them, they own almost 400 vessels.
Shipping is a source of pride and jobs for Greeks. It is the one area in which they unquestionably lead the world: their country’s merchant fleet is the biggest on Earth. Directly and indirectly, it is reckoned to give work to almost 200,000 people.
But the shipping business also provokes resentment. Greece’s 1967 constitution stipulates that the industry should pay no tax on the international earnings it brings into the country. And it has little to fear from either the debt crisis or an exit from the euro.
“It’s not really affecting us because we’re not Greek companies: we’re based abroad,” said a tanker owner who requested anonymity in view of the sensitivity of the situation. “The law allows us to have a ship registered in Liberia or Panama and an office in Greece. If everything collapses, we can leave the next day and establish in Cyprus or wherever.
“Our business is done in US dollars and shipping companies don’t just have one account in one country,” he said. So, not even the imposition of capital controls on Monday had any impact on Greece’s ship owners."
Good. I'm tired of trying to get out of the way of those fuckers out at sea. They just go on autopilot and don't care what they run over.
Conversation mid Pacific:
Me: This is the yacht "fly shit" calling container ship X
X: no respose
I call several times again and finally get an answer.
Me: Do you see me on radar?
X: hold on. let me turn it on
Gave an Uber ride to a crewman from the Trans Pac race docked in Honolulu. He said the biggest challenge is avoiding all the garbage without damaging the Sant Cruz he's on..... containers, nets, all sorts of shit floating out there
Yeah it's called the garbage dump of the pacific. All kinds of interesting shit floating around out there. Glass fishing balls, radioactive Japanese houses, tons of other plastic shit.
Aother tragedy befalling our environment.
Plastic is only cheap if you can discard it in the sea, chuck it over the fence into the neighbor's yard, out the window of the car, etc...
The REAL costs of all the 'products' comprising the disposable society are bobbing in the Pacific, settling in land-fills, waiting by the side of the highway in New Jersey, etc... Someday those REAL costs will be paid; but, not by the assholes that made a quick buck selling the shit or using it instead of renewables/biodegradeables...
A debt based economy almost makes sense when you think about how almost everything's true costs are paid in the future. This time it will truly be different, as we have never compounded this much monetary debt with the future costs that technology has promised us. Pollution is the least of it.
radiation
GM foods
absolute dependency on a corrupt and perverted system of everything
Waste-to-energy is kind of a big deal now.
Also, maybe I should dig up that paper I wrote on how to compare petrochemicals vs. renewables in a full LCA. Aside from the occasional oil spill, oil does not take up entire US states of farmland, doesn't need millions of gallons of fertilizer, needs dramatically less harvesting equipment per unit produced, etc. etc.
That said, we did have some pretty neat tech in that renewables lab I worked in. Unfortunately, scientific rigor forced me to admit that renewables as they exist now aren't the panacea they are made out to be. Lifestyle changes are required and there's no way around it.
Reinforcing what you said, laboratorymike, there are no likely advances in windmill-turbine bearing technologies to help make wind energy cost-competitive. Big expensive bearings needing maintainance.
Solar may be a better bet than wind other than, perhaps, windy valleys not too far from cities.
Re psyco pays good bitchez.
Anyone want to tell me why a train I saw about a week ago had every train car half full of coal? Maybe it was windy that day
That makes no sense. Heavy coal? Usually, and it's been awhile, is piled higher than the top of the car.
Some sort of temporary weight restriction on the line, perhaps?
I think you are correct,TB.
Oil car traffic and quantity (and deferred grain and coal traffic) has slowed many transport corridors due to deferred maintenance, a very common Capital Expense that is being deferred because it is not a quarterly benefit to shareholders.
Stupidly .he adds, that it is a shruggish kinda thing.
Um, I'll take 'Cause Warren Buffet gets paid by the car moved, not tonnage' for $500 Alex..
A guy could get RICH operating like that!
French stopped eating Chinese food?
I've seen those refrigerated containers on " How It's Done". There is some serious wiring and electric generation on those ships.
Which give me an idea.
Let's build some containers like little apartments. A/c, satellite TV, refrigerators. Toilets would be an issue. We'll work on that.
I'd pay $400.00 right now, to get loaded on a ship, in a crate, and take a cruise, if gets me away from the nagging old lady bitching about why we can't just be normal. Like everybody else is, don't ya know.
Damn, she spends money we don't have, on shit we don't NEED, a yaps at me, telling me I'm brainwashed from hanging with you guys and gals.
It's bad out here. And getting worse. I see folks dropping, that no one would ever thought, five years ago. Every other house around here is for sale. Everyone I know in deep do do is trying to sell, and no bites. Nada. Nothing. One pal has an office building, class A, eight years old now, 25-30% occupied. Barely pays the nut and taxes. ( no it doesn't!).
I'm self employed. Find work, chase money, hide from my Uncle.
The playbook we where taught, is out the window.
I just come here to try and stay ahead of a tragedy. I just want a little better view of the road ahead. To many are just satisfied to pull in behind a semi, and follow him over a cliff. It seems.
I just know this. Trying to be normal, and have fun, is hard when your dial is tuned to the things we listen for. Ignorance is bliss.
Well that went off on a tangent.
You'll get stacked below deck with containers all around and unable to open the door. Enjoy your vacation.
As long as it's quiet.
Consider RoRo in an RV going to an exotic local near you!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll-on/roll-off
"Ignorance is bliss" ? Huh...your comment was going fine until that quote. That is one of the greatest, popular, mass propaganda quote pulled off the libtards.They got most of the sheeple already signed up for that. Just as they are trying to get them signed up for utopia/kumbaya $hit.
With that quote in place, its not going to be that hard.
So tell me, how are the ignorant not in bliss??
Happy go lucky, not a care in the world. To me, that defines bliss.
" ignorance is bliss"
There are days I wish I could be happy looking forward to fishing on Saturday, then get a new tat, and watch football on Sunday with the boys.
I see your point, but the idea is to use the knowledge, not fear it. Would you rather become the sheep....get mericelessly slaughtered, wondering why ? Imagine that.
Ignorance is never a sustainable bliss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJkWS4t4l0k&safe=active
Ignorance is bliss
Here is an even better idea when they go inevitably bankrupt. Buy 3-4 ships with the sea cans already on them chain them all together in the ocean where it is in international waters but still quiet and declare your own country.
Make sure it is close enough for high speed microwave links so lots of people can put servers out there.
Create an offshore bank haven the likes of Warren Buffet and minion would be dumping billions to escape taxation.
Make it the corporate headquarters for every company in the world with zero tax.
-
Been there, done that, lost alot O money.
No Tee shirts available.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand
but but, you have green shoots, hope, change, and a dick sucker for a president. golden rainbows.
NoPension: Toilets would be an issue. We'll work on that.
Fear not, just roast the brown trout.
http://incinolet.com/
I hear you, NoPension, it's tough out there. I live in Oklahoma and the drop in energy prices has hurt people here. I gave up looking for a job a long time ago and am self-employed by doing various technical jobs. Anytime I get up the cajoles to look at job listings, I quickly realize there's no much out there except food service and jobs with requirements that are ridiculous. Even after all of that they still don't pay much considering the toll those 8-5 jobs have on your life and well-being. I always become depressed in those jobs. I hate them but we want money lol
Don't let the stated requirements on job listings intimidate you, even now they rarely get everything they want. Being aware of current and future economic upheavals can be a double edged sword because if you dwell too much in the negative you can become paralyzed and not be able to make moves and decisions and there is still money out there. You are smart, have a personality and you have it sounds like you have real skills so just make sure to network and be social that's where all the good jobs are, the listings are often the jobs nobody wants. Relocation may change your luck as well.
the want ads page in the Sunday paper is only one page total....
Invest in a good .22 pistol with a silencer and your services will always be in demand.
Rate scale depends on customer satifaction levels.
Good rant. I think you should plumb the toilets out the back of the ship. Keep the steerage type passengers towards the back of the ship. The people who live in ignorant bliss can be the steerage passengers.
I wish I were like your wife, NoPension. I am totally envious.
I'm sorry that her happy/naggy obliviousness is so hard on you, however.
you are just like his wife except you aren't his wife, but you are still a stupid cunt
dogbreath, out of lurking, springs into action!!!!!!
It's funny to have someone be obessed with me, but it is a little creepy.
Our last interchange concluded with our determining that you are a misogynist because you really really are actually into men (not that there is anything wrong with that). Instead of having a long interchange that leads to that, we can just conclude with that now, haha.
coming from some liberal hipster like you I'll take that as a compliment. You can be counted on to come to the defense of every woman you've never met regardless of merit. You're original comments show you are so plainly oblivious to your narcissist hardwiring.
with the exception of unicorns AWALT
I'm in Concord CA, knucklehead phat city (no offense knukles). People here are waxing phat on their RRE appreciating 30 or 40 or 50 percent in the last 2 years, breaking out their motorboats and yes, Camperees that had been rusting in their dirt backyards.
The cornucopia of Amerikan and Kalifornian culture is putting forth in due season. I want no part of it.
I cling to my gimped oil and gold stocks, save cash, don't buy a car, wait for the correction since I was not nimble enough to hold my nose and buy the shit the Obama Admin has been dishing. That same shit made a lot of stupid people a lot of money, by the way.
I don't want anything, really; I walk through stores and see cheap Chinese plastic shit everywhere I look. "And without plastic was no thing made that was made."
Mediocre job but no debt. No motivation to participate in their sins so I will not receive of their plagues. Learning how to hide what I have.
Get high on hash, sip jasmine tea, refuse to participate. Yes I am hunkered down.
"not receive of their plagues" - good one.
Me: good job, good pay, no debt, lots o' cash (probably soon to disappear in a puff of vapor), too many stocks (probably soon to disappear in a puff of vapor), paralyzed by indecision how to divest. Paid-off house (but not sellable for nearly what I paid), paid-off car and motorcycle. But I feel the noose tightening, a quickening to the edge. Spend now while I can? Invest in something useful before the big-ass black swan arrives and shits on my head? A small farm with chickens and goats? I don't look good in overalls. They make my ass look big. i don't know what to do.
Wikipedia doesn't explain the Empty Offices and Housing after the 1980s Oil Glut. But that time we pulled out of it and soon entered the period of massive corruption and bubbles.
- Houston, Denver, and other Metros become known for empty offices and some kind of housing crisis in some cases.
- Seems like we had the Savings & Loan Scandal, Star Wars, Massive Reagan Defense & Federal Spending with this Oil Glut (Price Decline), plus Industrial and other sectors were down after the 1970s
"The 1980s Oil Glut was a serious surplus of crude oil caused by falling demand following the 1970s Energy Crisis. The world price of oil, which had peaked in 1980 at over US$35 per barrel ($100 per barrel today), fell in 1986 from $27 to below $10 ($58 to $22 today).[2][3] The glut began in the early 1980s as a result of slowed economic activity in industrial countries (due to the crises of the 1970s, especially in 1973 and 1979) and the energy conservation spurred by high fuel prices.[4]"
If I order more of those really colorful lawn gnomes - would that help some?
Swat team might show up at your door. Mr Yellen doesn't like it when you mess with his peeps.
No worries. I'm sure it can all be made up on volume.
You are a little late - but the thrust is correct.
Not $400.00 - it is as of this morning $250 a TEU and still falling from Shanghai to Rotterdam for example.
Fugly doesn't cover the waterfront.
Fucking left coast container handler strike.
Bye Boys, its been Good to know Ye.
Not to worry...As long as banks are too big to fail, all is priced in!
CRIMINALS have it under control
As a Port Crane Driver who unloads ships in the UK... the quay isnt as full as it should be, been getting thinner for months.
Watch this space (soon to become gaping whole when the rigged econ goes full panic)
When does the Chinese "christmas" shit hit the port?
The sad thing about the UK is they have bastardaized Christmas there like the USA. Germany and Austria is a little better.
April
No sandwich for Lester....
It's all A-OK-Mighty Fine: The price of the U.S.' largest export item, empty shipping containers, is holding up very well.
I'll ask, I know it sounds stupid. Do they actually send them back empty? And does anyone know what they cost to make?They are well built.
Around here (Baltimore Metro) they go for about $2500.
I think that if there are no return goods, they go back empty.
Edited to add:
You got me curious so I did some exploring.
Only about 5% of the US arrivals return with cargoes in them. Costs 2-3000 per unit to manufacture. Costs almost as much to return empty as with a cargo-- which makes me wonder if US-China rates are the same as China-US rates or drastically lower.
The same factors affect U-Haul rentals. They used to fly my brother to areas of high net population growth to drive trucks back to the population-losing areas of the country.
I met a guy who did that once, but he was sitting across the aisle from me on a Greyhound bus.
For USSA WC to Asia once it gets below 400 a 40' it makes better money in the full loop to load empty.
Figure yr move costs is 400 lift on/lift off, bunker, etc, also you can flip them immediately for higher NOR imports back to aMERDEica.
Chinese will run at a loss to keep those factories going - and ship at a loss on top - and they are now.
But there's only so many rabbits you can pull from the hat or shove up your ass to hide them.
As has been many articles before saying same but are in for a deflationary tidal wave coming out of China - this is just the front edge.
Interesting info, good analysis.
feel free to give me crap any time.ald
I'm in a world of hurt, just hanging on. Yet, I drove a customer (I'm Ubering as a second job) to HNL, he works for Pasha Shipping, they just bought a huge roll-on roll-off ship and added a weekly LA to Honolulu route... didn't seem to be suffering.
Interesting tidbit.. he said the busiest Costco in the country is........ Maui!
My lady friend put her house up for sale on Maui, under contract in 5 days! Approx $1.6m...
Did an Asian buy it?
There are a limited number of places in the first world with year round summer. Despite what people say, the economy is not about the 1%. It is more like an economy for the top 15%. That 15% is big enough to put a strain on the few good places in the first world that people want to live.
Year round summer equates "good"?
Sounds like meteorologist talk. What if I think having snow from time to time is "good"?
I like my four seasons. Actually, I only like winter, spring and autumn.
(also: equating Hawaii with the first world is somewhat of a stretch)
USSA to Hawaii and Alaska is Jones Act - I.e monopoly trade lanes. They print money and are immune to global shipping trends.
Wonder why a box of cornflakes costs 5 or 7 bucks in Hono or Achcorage??
@ mine-a-double...
Thanks for debunking and...thanks for that useful and little known "monopoly".
Of course, I forgot, thanks MMAD, there is a monopoly so of course Hawaii shippers are doing great
Baltic Dry Index indicates that Ponzi Casino Capitalism is finished just like all the BIG box Corporations that pump-you-up every quarter with QE stock buybacks that you paid for with the futures of your grandchildren, and their grandchilden, ad infinitum.
This is the miracle of deficit spending that turns out not to be a miracle when a currency ends the lifecycle of usefulness that currency typically undergoes.
No World domination for you!
Such a simple mind.
Perhaps a different world perspective as a metrosexual for a start would be in order?
Are you kidding?
I took over the entire World March 10th 2008 at 11:00am Bear Stearns time New York shitty. You just have not been able to figure it out because it is actually you that has 'such a simple mind' not moi.
NOTE: Dominating the World is not difficult for me since I figured how it works via reverse engineering. Once you figure it out it gets boring quick and you want to move on to more complicated subject matter that poses a challenge, no shit.
You'll never "rule the world" without the love and devotion of the people. Otherwise, expect to be tripped at every turn. You will need a food taster, body double and a mean wife who wears big diamonds who admonishes you for you choice in socks.
I already rule the World and have done so since March 10th 2008. Ruling the World does not require 'love & devotion' because I rule via mathematics, and mathematics and I have always been in love, and always will be in love. Mathematics knows my level of devotion, and so do I. Moreover, no woman could ever tell me what to do. God has not invented a woman that could tell me what to do as far as I am aware. I do love nice babes, but God has not invented one that I am willing to tolerate 24/7/365 yet. And if God has invented a woman that I could tolerate that's all fine & dandy, but I can't afford her because God is a cheap bastard that did not provide a hint of gainful employment where I could get out from under debt.
Your love does not pay my bills, I want money, that's what I want.
MOU: I notice a shortage of gold coins at some online dealers.
Q: Buy Anglo Coins, World Coins, independent Swiss Gold Coins, Caribbean Gold Coins (small minting)...
Or Just buy gold & silver bullion bars since they might avoid confiscation?
Obviously I was just surfing before I got here.
I was watching the Dry Index and all the Oil and Gas Tankers after 2008. Pretty slow recovery, got bored, then figured we had global problems. Lots of companies were buying super max tankers and new LNG Tankers before 2008.
Shipping companies could not build ships fast enough before 2008. Once they realized their mark-to-market mistakes, and Lehman imploded, it was too late to restructure before all had to take a bath on that investment. Just as CAT is a bellwether metric of global significance so too is the Baltic Dry Index. Since 2008 the writing on the wall has been blatantly obvious just like CAT was obvious after Lehman imploded. In brief, the Economists are all tasked with the short term bottom line on valuations. If Economists had been doing their collective jobs correctly, the March 2008 implosion would not have manifested, and destroyed the World governments all at the same time. Contemporary Economists knew full well that Financialization & Securitization would eventually blow up in their collective faces, but they only thought about their own short term gains.
In the long run over the last eight years gold & silver has been a poor investment IMO. The only safe investment is Real Estate IMO. I only invest in Real Estate given past profit I have made from it.
I haven't had much cash to invest in R/E and feel costs are higher than I planned for just my home. Maybe putting my cash into insulation, energy saving, and getting advice on cutting utilities is better than paying off last little bit on mortgage.
I considered moving and selling home, but am sitting on the fence. My trade one problem for another, but it would put in a location of choice.
The other thing might be buying a sliver of hunting land near farms, but seems like a store of value unless I tried to raise fruit trees, produce, or chickens, goats, or rabbits in which case I might need grasses and feed.
I get that R/E has holding power for wealth and may pickup. But I don't feel I can make the decision in any way... other than investing in whatever home I own. I don't even feel comfortable renting this home or being a landlord. Maybe I should review how to select renters and liability laws.