Kong Sez:

    Economic historian, Dr. Gary North, Ph.D., from his member website, gives this little known indicator for the economy.

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Another Little-Known Economic Indicator

Points to a Continuing Decline

Gary North
May 1, 2009

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The Baltic Dry Index is better known today than a year ago. When economies contract, so does shipping.

In the United States, this indicator is train cars in transit. These days, fewer are in transit.

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After months of dealing with their new neighbor, complaints from Ward 1 residents are piling up.

A train, seen clearly from Interstate 90 and Humiston Drive, was parked on railroad property bordering the city's east-side neighborhood with little warning in December. The move upset some residents and Ward 1 Councilman David Tadych.

Ward I Councilman David Tadych said the parked train with its "imported" graffitti is "ridiculous."

"The 18-foot tall wall of graffiti and rust at the end of Humiston is ridiculous," Tadych said.

According to an e-mail from Bill Harris, a Norfolk and Southern representative from Columbus, the train parked between Clague and Columbia roads and extending well into Rocky River, is indicative of a national railway trend.

"With the economic slowdown we have many rail cars to store," he wrote to Law Director Gary Ebert. "We have rail cars stuck in every nook and cranny on the railroad and we are still looking for more places. We need to use (the) Clague siding to store some of our multi-level auto racks until the auto industry picks back up."

Despite stacked trains throughout the nation, Ebert pointed out that many of the trains have been parked in commercial zones instead of neighborhoods like the one bordering Bay Village and Rocky River. There has been a train parked in Bay since Thanksgiving.

Bay Village officials deal with long-parked train

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I do not know of a published index of the parked freight cars to rolling cars ratio. This would be useful.

Here are two more.

Fort Collins is a busy enough train town that most cars parked in the city are eventually picked up, according to city and railroad officials. The city is luckier than other train towns, which are playing host to the more than 206,000 boxcars parked by the nation's five largest railroads. The number represents 30 percent of the nation's boxcars. An average boxcar is about 65 feet long; end-to-end, they would stretch from New York to Salt Lake City.

In December, Union Pacific Corp. parked a three-mile-long train of cars in Thornton south of 168th Avenue to just north of 136th Avenue. But residents revolted, and UP agreed to move the cars to an area north of Colo. 7 to just south of Weld County Road 6. They couldn't be moved until the city of Thornton removed asphalt that had been paved over the tracks near Weld 6, however.

Train Blogging: Freight Car Storage and Brakes

This kind of anecdotal evidence gets local attention, but it receives no national attention.

The U.S. economy is stalled along the side of the tracks. There are no clear-cut signs of recovery.

In The Meantime

Run For Your Life

From now on, Folks, it's gonna get pretty rough! In fact, downright cussed.
Mr. Ugly Will Show Before Long.

But For Now...

Keep Running

Keep Your Purse and Scrip With You—Luke 22:36

And Now

Get Two Guns—Luke 22:36–38

Before The New Dude Won't Let You Have Them

Times in America will change rather abruptly.
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Medicine Supply/List.

We Feel This Is Going To Be A Long, Hard Siege
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