Wednesday, Jul. 22, 2009
Trade is Getting Clobbered
You expect trade to slump during a recession. But we're witnessing the mother of all trade pullbacks, and in an unusual twist it's sucking in nations that would seem to have very little to do with the U.S. and European banking crisis, says John Dunham of economic consultants Dunham and Associates. The World Bank predicts that global trade will fall a stunning 10% this year. The decline in exports from the U.S. is unprecedented in recent times, falling nearly 40% in just six months. There's been nothing like this since the 1970s oil embargo.