"...the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Friday reported their worst combined import statistics for September in nine years. September is often the busiest month at the nationâs biggest port complex, making it one of the best barometers of the health of the economy and international trade. The port of Los Angeles received 309,078 containers packed with imported goods in September, representing a decline of 16% from the same month last year and 27% from September 2006. Long Beach received 224,924 import containers in September, a drop of 19% from a year earlier and 32% from September 2007. For the first nine months of the year, imports, exports and empty containers through the port of Los Angeles were down 16% at just under 5 million containers while the Long Beach port saw a decline of nearly 25% at just under 3.7 million containers, compared with the same period last year. As dismal as those figures are for the two ports, which rank first and second in the U.S. in container volume and together rank fifth in the world, a greater worry goes beyond the immediate and substantial loss of local trade-related jobs: Some of the portsâ most important tenants were so poorly positioned for the downturn that they might sink completely in a sea of billions of dollars of red ink, experts say..." http://seekingalpha.com/article/167...look-boosts-from-bernanke-beijing-and-britain
You ever consider posting all these articles on the walls in the mens rooms at the NYSE and the NASDAQ? They might have a bigger impact there. Obviously no one is paying attention here.
I feel badly for those whose businesses and jobs depend on those ports, but shrinking imports (which is seemingly what this reflects) is good news in the long run for the US trade balance, which is in my opinion a critical issue that needs as much help as it can get.