John Thomas on Freight Brokering

Economic Recovery - How Close Are You to It?

Here is an article in Forbes on America's faster recovering cities. I'll still never forget the time they were posting signs that read "Will the last person turn out the lights" in my hometown years ago. It is now benefiting from a strong recovery that surpassed even the most optimistic thoughts.

Anyway, go here to find those cities:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/19/cities-recovery-unemployment-lifestyle-real-estate-top-ten-chart.html?partner=yahoore

My Trusted Advisor

Jim Stack of InvesTech Research has some very positive opinions based upon his research. Years ago the only source of economic information for me was a stock broker. I didn't have time for the WSJ. And I dearly needed an "analyst", not a sales person. I'm so glad I came across Jim at a conference a couple years ago.

Jim Stack and his crew really know how to "slice and dice" things in the economy. They are research nuts in the best way. And, there are some good things happening right now according to their research. Let's take a quick look .....

Here are a couple recent trends happening right now -

    * Consumer Expectations continue to rise .....

    * CEO Confidence is following suit .....

    * The Employement Outlook is improving ..... 

    * The Economic Rebound might be stronger than we think .....

These people base their opinions on research - good, reliable research. No research is without its drawbacks. None of it is absolute gospel. But these people will tell you pretty closely what to have or not have confidence in.

In my next blog post, I'll expand a little bit more on these. Have a nice day.

The Hillside Strangler ... Have You Hit It?

Just west of downtown Chicago on I-290 there is an area where several large highways intersect. Let me tell you, for early morning rush hour and after work drive time - you can get strangled. You will just creep along coming to complete stops every 20 seconds. It is known as the Hillside Strangler. It's got to be murder on truckers primarily because the "mail" has to be delivered on time.

Now, to be honest, I have not driven there for several years and maybe things got cleared up. I was working in downtown Chicago for an architecture firm that was a spin off of another firm that was given the job of designing the area with the goal of making it more passable.

Why do I mention the Hillside Strangler?

Our Highway Trust Fund had to be bailed out twice. George Bush gave it $8 billion when he was in office. Pres. Obama gave it another $7 Billion dollar shot this year. Concerned peoples have said that money from the trust fund is being siphoned off for other uses.

Here is my personal dilemma - maybe yours too. I would dearly love to research and uncover what is really happening to our tax dollars. But I don't have the time. Maybe a poor excuse, I know.

But, did you know that the Government itself has no money. Not one red cent. Why? Because it's YOUR money and MY money. I feel helpless. Your money and my money are "up for grabs" and I feel I can't do a thing about it.

What will our highways be like ten, twenty or fifty years from now? It's downright scary.

I wish there was one good person - one good research person - who had the time and ability to research this stuff. I guess there are "watch dog" organizations out there. But I have not followed them. Maybe I should - unless someone wants to stand up and volunteer to be the Highway Trust Fund Watch Dog for us here.

Any takers?

Enjoy your weekend travel.

"Let the Deficits Be Damned ....."

These were the words of an economist about 70 years ago. Many years ago in college, I read how this economist, John Maynard Keynes, encouraged the government to start spending in order to stimulate the economy. People were not buying and producers were not producing. Unemployment was high.

So the government went on a spending spree, spending money they did not have. It was as if they pulled out a huge credit card with no limit on spending. Well, the economy jumped. But this was during the WWII era when America went to war.

Production was robust and unemployment dropped. Many thought John Maynard Keynes was a genius and that he actually saved capitalism.

So what does this mean with today's Stimulus spending package? Is it the answer to our current situation? I wish I knew.

I do know that China is the "company" issuing the credit card to us. China has purchased so many Treasuries bills or notes that we are indebted to China far beyond what most people realize. Most people don't realize that China has so much cash, they don't hardly know what to do with it. So, they are "loaning" it to the United States in the form of purchasing our debt. What are we going to do if China starts calling back their debt?

We do know that there is a $787 billion stimulus package and that this money comes from the Chinese in large part. Correct me if I am wrong.

If you want to track what's going on with this money, go to http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/home.aspx . You may also want to check out http://www.recovery.com/ . Sometimes reading the comments can shed more light on what's going on more so than what you can glean from the websites themselves.

I realize it's hard to understand some of this. If you know of other websites that better clarify what's going on, please respond here with a comment. Thank you.

These Things Don't Skip My Attention .....

I'm reading this morning in The Las Cruces Bulletin (Briefs) and it starts out, "Holloman Could Get F-35s". Holloman is an Air Force base just east of Las Cruces, NM. Now let me tell you - these are the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter planes that the Air Force is buying. They are going to purchase roughly 1,700 F-35s between now and 2020.

This ain't peanuts.

Each plane costs into the millions. Some of the "older" planes have costed out between 140 to 200 million dollars - each. Each plane needs metal, plastic, rubber, nut, bolts and who knows what else.

And if you haven't thought of this - there will be a huge number of trucks needed to transport the raw materials and completed parts to and from the manufacturer and other locations.

There is just a whole lot of spending going on and, yes, the government is the biggest. It's been that way and will continue to be that way in order to keep our world turning (and protected).

So, What Can We Expect?

I just read a headline on Yahoo that said that Walmart is planning to hire 22,000 people this year. That's a tad more than I expect to hire. In fact, I'm still pretty much going solo with the help of several "virtual employees".

But what can we expect?

Does this mean Walmart plans on selling more? Does this means that Walmart plans on purchasing more inventory? Does this mean that there might be more trucks arriving at the Walmart loading docks?

In my opinion, yes, yes, and yes.

The economy will be turning around. Walmart knows this. Do you?

The Emerging World Economy

For many citizens of the U.S.A., there seems to be an aura of depression and a decreasing standard of living to look forward to. After all, we are currently going through some bad times almost across the board in our economy. But there are bright spots as well.

However, rather than get all bent out of shape about our economy and equally important, our personal economic situations, there is a brighter side. Here is what Trends Magazine offers:

• The population of the developed world is rapidly aging.
• The United States is the only advanced nation where the workforce is forecasted to grow over the next 50 years.
• The populations of the EU and Japan are actually expected to shrink over that time period.
• Even China is rapidly aging and the size of its workforce will peak around 2025.
• At the same time, Latin America, India, the Middle East, and Africa all have young, rapidly growing populations of under-utilized workers and under-served consumers.

The only negative I see here for the U.S.A. is the fact that our country's aging population is growing along with fewer workers to support the aging society. But even with this, our workforce will continue to expand over the next 50 years. While our ratio of workers to retirees is not good news, it is not nearly as catastrophic as other parts of the world - Europe, Japan, Russia, the Middle East and Africa.

One good stimulus to our expanding economy has been our immigrants - not only from Mexico but from all parts of the world. Our mixture of peoples and workers has created a social and economic fabric that is second to none in the world. It will keep our economy strong and resilient.

I don't get "down" too much on what's going on because I know our country is so blessed and, yes, things could be a lot worse.

For those who are in a position to throw off the yoke of "working for the man", now may be the best time to start your own business. Freight brokering is a low-cost, high-income potential opportunity that can be run right off of your kitchen table or from your spare bedroom.

Check us out at: http://www.atexfreightbrokertraining.com

Have a nice day!
John