Yes, that really is 4 miles of Railroad locomotives, from a single carrier -SP. If you wondered what 292 traction engines parked in a line would look like - wonder no more. In April, loads of containers and trailers fell 7.5% year-over-year to 1,028,460 intermodal units. They transport goods for retailers and wholesalers. They haul parts, components, and assemblies for manufacturers. They haul imported goods from ports and borders to different destinations across the country, and they haul goods to be exported to the ports and borders. They’re a measure of the real economy. For the first 17 weeks of the year, total rail freight fell 7.8% from the same period a year ago, with carload traffic down 14.3% and intermodal down 0.8% Biggest loser, no surprise, coal. empty tankers show oil shipments are down 25%. These empty railcars sit idly along Route 61 north between Leesport and Shoemakersville. (Google Maps) Overhead view of oil tankers I'm trying to find a Google Earth over head view .
What pushes my fur the wrong way is the crowing about how many jobs were added in any given month, and ignoring the losses. Methinks if the adds and subtracts were combined, there might well be a net negative.
they were predicting 200k added this month but only 160k appeared. If this were a normal market and you missed by 20% there would have been a sell off and commodities would be jumping. So there seems to be a lot of koolaid drinking going on.
And a whole bunch of those railroad cars used to be filled with coal and transported all over the country. Kajun
I know what you mean....my country's conservative government is crowing about an improvement in employment participation, which of course should be a positive outcome, unless the figures are examined a little more closely: Much of the increased employment can be attributed to part-time and casual work....full time employment has dropped. When full-time employment is increasing, it tends to be a better indicator of economic health...than total employment....a greater growth in part-timers and casuals would indicate enterprises that are positioned to belt tighten and reduce in the face of economic uncertainty.
Yep, plus 160K and the unemployment rate was unchanged. That tells you minus 160K also happened. I like my kookaide lemon.
and the Economists they hired to "Cook" these books, are just like the "ClimateClowns" that cook the Books over at NASA, NOAA.... What's a few Data Points, either way, or Degrees, as the case my be...
No matter how you slice it, the US really is headed into a Demographic Armageddon, Boomers are leaving the work force in growing numbers every day. Yes - 10,000 - Ten thousand boomers retire each day. A lot of them, too many,. were counting on the FedGov to prop them up in their old age. The real US birth rate (not counting illegal migrants) is nearly that of Japan....under 2%. Most of Europe is in the same boat. I hope you have a lot of beans canned, you are going to need them.....
94 million Americans (out of 300 million) are unemployed and looking for work. Plus 40 million illegals who get food stamps, ADC, welfare, free college, free Drivers Lic., free housing, free medical, etc.
It ain't free. I'm looking at my pay stub. I'm pretty sure you and I are paying for that "Free" stuff.
We used to have long train loads of lumber come by every day. Now the average train I see is anywhere from 4-10 cars. (including the engine)