I was absolutely stunned to learn that the Baltic Dry Shipping Index
had plummeted to a new all-time record low of 504 at one point on
Thursday. I have written a number of articles lately about
the dramatic slowdown in global trade,
but I didn’t realize that things had gotten quite this bad already.
Not even during the darkest moments of the last financial crisis did the
Baltic Dry Shipping Index drop this low. Something doesn’t seem to be
adding up, because the mainstream media keeps telling us that the global
economy is doing just fine. In fact, the Federal Reserve is so
confident in our “economic recovery” that they are getting ready to
raise interest rates. Of course the truth is that there is no “economic
recovery” on the horizon. In fact, as I wrote about
yesterday,
there are signs all around us that are indicating that we are heading
directly into another major economic crisis. This staggering decline of
the Baltic Dry Shipping Index is just another confirmation of what is
directly ahead of us.
Overall, the Baltic Dry Index
is down more than 60 percent
over the past 12 months. Global demand for shipping is absolutely
collapsing, and yet very few “experts” seem alarmed by this. If you are
not familiar with the Baltic Dry Shipping Index, the following is a
pretty good definition from
Investopedia…
(more)