Economy Perspective? Watch the Railroads

Economists will give you a variety of opinions on the economy such as it is improving, stabilizing or deteriorating. I believe that we should utilize tools to make our own conclusions as opposed to relying on the well informed opinions of others. One such tool is from the Association of American Railroads. Every week on Thursday, the Association publishes the Weekly Traffic of US Railroads.
The following chart comes from their website: http://www.aar.org/NewsAndEvents/PressReleases/2009/10_WTR/100109_RailTraffic.aspx

Note a couple line items: #17 - Motor Vehicles and Equipment, Line #10 Lumber and Wood Products. We will not be increasing the Vehicles sold and the related production without seeing an uptick in line 17. We also will not see a significant change in housing without an uptick in the Lumber and Wood Products. Therefore, monitor the rails and you will get a great picture of the current economy. It is also worth noting that the weekly report includes separate tables of the rail traffic for Mexico and Canada.

Copyright 2009 - Jim Lindell & TEC
(Note: Jim is a TEC Chair of 2 groups in SE Wisconsin)