Here is a link to a report of an interview with Nouriel Roubini a/k/a "Dr. Doom" of Roubini Global Economics. He correctly called the Great Recession and identified its causes well in advance.
While he has his critics, I like to include his views when thinking about the mix. Regardless of what you might think of the man himself or his projections, the factual points he makes in this interview about stimulus items are worthy of note.
Of greater interest to people reading the economic tea leaves will be this weekend's meeting of leading world bankers and economists at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. While it will produce the usual stream of headlines and sound bytes, the symposium also produces important papers presented by some of the participants. It takes some digging to read them but they can be very informative.
My pre-Jackson-Hole view: If the Bush and Obama stumuli worked at all, they worked only to delay the inevitable. The only way to clear the markets and return the economy to a healthy state is to let the people fail who should fail; namely, those people and institutions that extended themselves beyond all reason into debt and funny-money accounting.
Allowing them to fail will have a devastating impact on the economy but with the economy being more powerful than the Republicans, more powerful than the Democrats, and more powerful than the government, delaying the inevitable will only make things worse in the long run. Sadly, policy makers and lawmakers have taken huge steps and committed massive amounts of our nation's strength to doing just that...delay the inevitable.
We have seen and enjoyed a pickup in expedited freight but it is not a development I would trust. If you are thinking about going into debt to boost your expediting business, it may be OK to do, but only if you are prepared to survive a second period of negative economic growth (in expediter terms, slow freight at low rates).
I'm not saying a double dip recession is at hand. I do not know that it is. I am saying be prepared for the possibility. Don't let a few months of good freight lull you into a false sense of security. What you see today may not be what you get tomorrow.
While he has his critics, I like to include his views when thinking about the mix. Regardless of what you might think of the man himself or his projections, the factual points he makes in this interview about stimulus items are worthy of note.
Of greater interest to people reading the economic tea leaves will be this weekend's meeting of leading world bankers and economists at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. While it will produce the usual stream of headlines and sound bytes, the symposium also produces important papers presented by some of the participants. It takes some digging to read them but they can be very informative.
My pre-Jackson-Hole view: If the Bush and Obama stumuli worked at all, they worked only to delay the inevitable. The only way to clear the markets and return the economy to a healthy state is to let the people fail who should fail; namely, those people and institutions that extended themselves beyond all reason into debt and funny-money accounting.
Allowing them to fail will have a devastating impact on the economy but with the economy being more powerful than the Republicans, more powerful than the Democrats, and more powerful than the government, delaying the inevitable will only make things worse in the long run. Sadly, policy makers and lawmakers have taken huge steps and committed massive amounts of our nation's strength to doing just that...delay the inevitable.
We have seen and enjoyed a pickup in expedited freight but it is not a development I would trust. If you are thinking about going into debt to boost your expediting business, it may be OK to do, but only if you are prepared to survive a second period of negative economic growth (in expediter terms, slow freight at low rates).
I'm not saying a double dip recession is at hand. I do not know that it is. I am saying be prepared for the possibility. Don't let a few months of good freight lull you into a false sense of security. What you see today may not be what you get tomorrow.
Last edited:
