Uh Oh . . . Logistics data shows "Real Economy" moving sideways since Covid, but financial "Paper Money" forming a bubble

I would not be surprised (nor alarmed) if the economy moved sideways since COVID. You know, COVID was tough.

That appears to be the case if we measure thing like truck tonnage.

But this strong divergence makes it look like there is some kind of bubble in the financial markets.

If the real economy is moving sideways, well, sideways is not bad.
But if that happens while the stock market, bond market, real estate market, insurance market, university endowments etc. etc. spiral upward that is disturbing.

Here’s the thing.

  1. I would expect that as we make stuff lighter, switch to doing stuff online, and buy every meal in a box or bag of premade pre cooked stuff these two lines would diverge slowly and steadily.

But a slow steady divergence is NOT what is happening.

  1. Last time the S&P got this far ahead of the real-economy-measured-by-truck-tonnage was a real real bad time for financial markets (Crash of 2008 or whatever we are calling it today.)

1 Like

Be afraid.

Be very very afraid.

image

Okay in your case
fear not, just stock up on canned goods and ammo. (wink)

Plant those 18 (three different varieties) blueberry bushes I’ve been eyeballing. Some more 4-in-1 apples, pears, and cherry trees as well.

Maybe I’ll slaughter an extra lamb or two this winter and make jerky.

1 Like

Shipments of cardboard boxes down 11% y-o-y

When’s the last time THAT happened?

1 Like

I’d say at least when the last was that people weren’t able to buy more and had to tighten their belts (under a Dem admin then too, IIRC).

Interestingly enough, I currently have a 14,000 gallon rain catch in the backyard if fecal matter ever hits the rotary blades. I’d hate to use it for anything other than a recreational pool, but if times call for it…

I would still much rather prefer to get a 10,000 closed gallon tank, but I can purify any water. In the end, rooftop water is just as parasitic as standing water.

oh my….

c’mon media - make it ok

1 Like

The thing is. looking back,
This (the extreme drop, in cardboard box shipments) does not equate with “just before” recent recessions, and it does not equate with “the beginning of” recent recessions.

It indicates something like “deep in the middle of a recession.”

1 Like

More of that logistics stuff.

Are truckers already being replaced by robots?
I heard it was going to happen.

If not, then I guess the base case has be that this rucking downturn is the same as the others.