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A gasoline tanker truck drives near the Chevron refinery in Richmond, Calif., this year. Diesel fuel sales have been declining in recent months.
An unusual index of economic activity — diesel fuel sales — is offering further proof that the economy is stumbling along without offering much hope for improvement.
The Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index tracks diesel fuel purchased at 7,000 truck stops across the country to gauge how much stuff is being transported around the country for purchase or use in factories, construction and the like.
The index, which had been steadily rising since the end of the 2007-09 recession, fell in July and more sharply in August, reflecting the economy's fresh weakness.
The index offers some insight into retail sales, which are key to the country’s economic health. A weak August reading, for example, could mean that back-to-school sales were disappointing, according to the latest report.
It’s a sluggish pattern that Edward Leamer, the economist who oversees the index, also saw in the aftermath of the nation’s last recession.
Leamer doesn't see the reading as proof of a new recession, yet.
“That doesn’t mean it’s party time because there’s nothing on the positive side, either,” Leamer said. “There’s no locomotive.”
The economy has been hamstrung by a high unemployment rate and continued housing market woes. That’s raising fears that the economy will slip back into a period of contraction, resulting in a double-dip recession.
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It is NOT Obozo the marxist.
ren...you are wrong sir. Obama IS driving the economy....right into the ground.
Wow Beev, in that regard you are right. A sad thought that I have recently is that I want Clinton back as Pres. How sad is that?
Man, are you two naive or what... How is it the presidents fault? Seems like he's trying to at least do something to get the economy rolling. I haven't heard squat coming from the republican party about creating jobs. After watching the debates they haven't said anything about creating jobs. Just more talk about keeping the tax breaks for the rich and the loopholes for big business'. I'll tell you what, when the republican party puts together anything regarding creating jobs then perhaps people will evaluate the better options but for now, the dems are the only ones offering up any suggestions.
Sorry Beev, you get it wrong again. Obstruction is why the economy is crap and we all know who the unhonorable obstructionists are.
Beev I would encourage you to educate yourself on what drives an economy, and rely less on what you hear from the morning news. There is a conundrum of information being shared with the public and those individuals that are not educated on the REAL issues become victims of political quarrels – and ultimately find themselves being driven by emotion. Come on Beev you can do it!
Correction, American consumers are driving the economy into the ground with it's love for "imported" products.
ren...Heck, Spongebob could do better. For that matter, any one of us who have miraculously somehow managed to keep their head above water in this disastrous economy could run D.C. better. Same principle only on a grand scale. Spend less than you earn (take in.) Stop stifling business with over 25,000 pages of rules and regulations (over-kill.) Reign in the Fed that specializes in printing worthless paper...further devaluing the already anemic dollar...(been to the grocery store lately?) Came out with two plastic bags of essentials and the tab was a whopping $80!
Stop playing favoritism ie; GE gets a free pass, Gibson guitar gets persecuted while other companies doing the same thing get a pass, 100% in the tank for unions while stifling right-to-work opportunities. Billions down the drain for now defunct "green companies" that when you break down the cost per employee (job) is astronomical. The madness goes on and on.
Stop granting corrupt businesses tax breaks and loopholes such that the NET tax rate is now 17.5% and the lowest of all industrialized countries which is why US corporations garnered record profits while employing record low number of people. Get a life and point the finger where it belongs--corrupt corporations paying little or no taxes and STILL exporting jobs overseas and importing illegals to take American jobs.
Close wallstreet, dismantle it, go back to supply and demand ONLY, take possession of what you bought as an investment, bought oil? better have storage tanks, bought Corn or wheat? better have a few silos in the courtyard of your highrise apt building, stop worrying about what Vodka costs in Russia unless you live there. Who CARES if Greece goes under, unless you live there, no one from Greece is going to come buy my chickens.
You have apple trees? ill trade you a turkey chick for each bushel of apples you want to part with.
Wall Street Schmall Street.
We all need to think about how 'economies' were built all over the world to know what to do now--or, at the very least, to understand why what is happening in other parts of the world, economically, such as in Greece (or wherever) affects us and others too.
(pardon the length)
I don’t have any solutions but I have some observations about some fundamentals that might help brighter people than I figure things out (or not).
Many countries are started up by people who traveled to seek resources and connections to places that would help them build on what they already began (the systems/places that they had prior to the colonization). The ties that these ‘colonizers’ sought were not always spurred by greed. Yes, some men sought riches, and maybe re-known, or maybe just plain adventure but it is safe to say, knowing what we know now, that the impetus behind their search was just plain fueled by fear of ‘running out’. These countries had been plenty successful in building large human groups who used up lots of resources but less successful on the sustainability of those populations hence their drive to look elsewhere.
This ‘inter-connectiveness’, or this necessity, therefore, has always played its hand in how the economic infra-structure of any given conquered, or “ burgeoning” country was built, and how, in general, that land’s resources have been cultivated, utilized, shared.
And so here we are—America. Created by the people, right? Not really. Created on the backs of slaves to make it worth the profit. Created with systems in place that continue to pay the men who started playing the country building game eons ago. Sustained by labor that can barely be called equitable to those who perform it.
We are no different than all the other places that were started by these ‘life-long entrepreneurs’ (our colonizers). Yeah, I know, reality check 101. America is not an island, never was, never will be. The only islands that exist are the virtual ones built by the rich gentlemen who had a start on this ‘country-building business’ many, many years ago (world wide just in the past Centuries).
So knowing our economy was spurred by colonizers whom we thought we ‘broke away’ from but never did should give us a better view of where we are and where we are going, yeah? The only answer (now) is that we have to understand that we are just as tied into the economies of other countries as they are tied into ours BUT how badly and how intrinsically depends on the resource, on the war, and on who is in charge of the game board at the time.
Now, knowing this—how are you we going to fix an economy and sustain it for the billions of people who live in our country and their future children? Yeah, not such an easy answer now that you see the big picture. I wish I hadn’t caught the full glimpse because now I see the heap of a mess we are in from a much higher vantage point and the only real solution lies in the past (if we had all controlled our human populations we wouldn't be in this mess in the first-place), not in the concrete present. It is not a place that lets me say that it’s all going to be fixed with a new president, that’s for sure. But even if the President and the congress come to some compromise that doesn't change anything I've said.
Good luck!
very well written answer Radical 1 (and i agree with everything you just said)short ,sweet & true to point!!! Dad always said "Plain Talk is Easy Understood" & people with the brain the size of a chicken,would agree with you!!(lol,I DO!! ;D,)we're in a pickle & we've got foxes guarding our hens & the hens dens.. Best Wish's & GODSPEED 2U & YOURS
Yeah, this Obama presidency is really changing the US......into a third-world nation.
But, don't stop spending money we don't have!!
Allison, why do we need additional proof Comrade Obama and his democrat friends and hammering capitalism down to nothing. Let's all trying reading history:
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves hand-outs (Entitlements) from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years."
— Alexis de Tocqueville
Presidents don't drive economies into the ground or into prosperity. That's the huge corporate leaders and Wall Street that do that. Unfortunately, Wall Street has turned to speculation since they were busted on derivatives fraud and predatory lending. They are speculating on food and oil. For example, the approximately double the price of gas at the pump - including diesel gas. Speculators with super fast computers do that at the stock exchange within a few days of buying and selling oil back and forth between them.
More brainless Obama bashing. He started with a recession caused by the largest white collar crime wave in our history. Wall Street was 100 percent to blame for the recession. It does make sense to look at Republicans deregulating Wall Street to enable them to commit those white collar crimes and then providing no real regulation.
The negativity that pervades the business culture is the response to Obama's anti-business policies.
Obamanomics is working just right!
Redistribution of wealth is working just as expected.
By next year, maybe he can get that number to 20%!
Steve841 I don't call having citizens pay their fair share. Afterall, they drive on federal highways and those corporate jets are given air clearance from federal air traffic controllers plus other things.
One more time in English?
So tempting to blame someone else isn't it. Obama. Bush. Clinton. Tea baggers. Damn liberals. Wall Street. Bankers.
The truth is much harder to accept- we (that's us, all of us) have "American lifestyle"-ed ourselves into a corner. Oil drives the economy and because about half of it is gone, the rest is harder to access (meaning its getting more expensive- duh) and this is not a short-term trend. We've used it on important stuff like plastic bags and disposable water bottles. This is it, folks. Party over. Oil will get more expensive, coal will get more expensive (because we have to use oil (duh) to mine it, ship it, process it, etc), all fuels besides oil provide less Energy Return On Energy Invested (EROI). Some, like ethanol, actually USE more energy to produce than they provide. Magical fantasy land miracle alternative energies are not far behind.
Obama is merely staving off the inevitable. Get someone in there like Perry or Bachman and the collapse will come much quicker. And in terms of climate change, that is probably a good thing, because the sooner we stop the economic engines, the less CO2 emitted and a better chance that our children and grandchildren may have a viable environment in which to live.
We actually need a President who will say it like it is, but that would be certain political death. So we get debates on how to keep going on a path that is leading us right over a cliff- no one has the nerve to tell us we had better start on a different direction entirely. Too bad.
kate- I'm with you sister!
And our damn kids want everything in an instant. It doesn't matter if they or their parents can afford everything they want. There are those that would kill and harm even the elderly just to get a few bucks. They're in for a rude awakening on what's ahead of them if their morality goes deeper into the mud and the sewer. Even I am mad at my own adult child who is 25 and won't listen because she knows everything already.
Blame the entitlements....how about the Wall Street bailouts ? Decade long Middle East War(s) ? Billions in foreign aid ? Tax breaks for the rich and famous ? ALL on borrowed money !
Supply side economics and the free market system has run amock and has failed.
Like most Americans I paid into SSI, I paid taxes and I have weathered 40 + years of recessions, failed domestic and foreign policy blunders, most of it due to poor leadership from both parties.
SSI or entitlements are one of the few positive things about our country that actually works.
Laughing at you guys. Don't you know politicians tinkering with the economy has about a 5% affect on the economy? The economy runs itself. And all the old folks retiring and the young generation not yet reaching their peak spending years has us in a slump. Can't sell products if no one needs them. Glad to see you "wiz kids" blaming the wrong folks for everything. Bet you're a product of our wonderful schools of the last 20 years or so.
Wall street & big corparations & billionares like the Koch brothers run goverment not the president.
So, are you saying that Obama's govt. is run by all these people? If so, what does that say about Mr. "I'll bring transparency back" President?!
America will follow Greece to it's grave.
First, close the tax loopholes for the largest coorporations who are now paying no taxes. Then, close the tax loopholes for the most wealthy who are paying little to no taxes. STOP BLAMING EACH PARTY SEPARATELY! It is POLITICIANS fault, both sides. Stop allowing each side to favor only those that are paying into their campaign. Get rid of the "grants". Cut out everything that is not medicare (elderly cannot help their situation), medicade (poor need assistance to be healty enough to work), social security (the people collecting paid into it, too, remember), transportation/infrastructure, defense (remember 9/11??!), disaster recovery; you can't just get rid of these -like 'em or not, they're here and necessary. Piss everyone else off, take away their 'binkies' and make them grow up and learn to support their own businesses. Once the economy is back, start bringing back some of the extras if possible, but be reasonable about it.
Remember economy class? Supply and demand? If there is no demand for goods, there is no sell, no selling means no profit, no profit leads to cutbacks. Cutbacks mean layoffs, unemployment which translates to even less money and now the prices of the goods that are still in demand are rising because people are demanding less the supply is less which raises the price. We tighten our belts even more because of uncertainty. WE are not spending.... FEAR is driving our economy into the ground. Now all the bail outs borrowed money and overseas jobs do not help, granted. But the bottom line is we are not spending. We have to shake the fear and go buy something!
Erika, I don't know where you live, but I know quite a few people who are UNEMPLOYED. We can't tell them to go spend, now can we? Obama needs to move out of the way of private sector business and allow them to create JOBS. (check out what Obama did in S.Carolina to Boeing when Boeing tried to create 1000 NON Union jobs there). This President is lying when he says he wants to create JOBS. ( he wants the govt. to create Union Jobs on the tax payer dime because Unions support his campaign).
Has anyone realized like I have that there is a trend to practically every article on finance? With the entire stock market driven almost entirely by speculation, the stories attempt to make an excuse or explain away the up and down curves of the economy.
Can we not start evaluating companies and countries for their ACTUAL WORTH? Why do we even have to speculate about the potential back to school sales? Is it not enough that the market swings wildly on the actual data, that now we have to predict before we predict in order to cushion the fall for the eventual predicted...blah, blah, blah! Look at the statistics man! The dollar, gold and US treasury bonds flip around as people believe in the future of the US...which is all based on the reporters' speculations!!
Perhaps I am oversimplifying it, but damn! When was the last time we actually reviewed the production record of a company and decided to buy or sell based on that?
As for gas prices, which are conveniently linked to diesel prices, which are linked to transport costs, which now reflect the GDP, blah, blah, blah...of course they are all linked, ...and based on speculation on the oils futures market! Country is potentially going to war (there is always someone at war)...the pipeline might be damaged (so? don't companies plan for this with backups and redundancies, etc.)...US oil reserves are getting low (because 3 months of storage is not enough?)...
Speculation, speculation, speculation and selective reports that manipulate the market, if only indirectly by adding confusion, uncertainty and doubt as to the future of anything. I am tired of it. Tired of the market being manipulated. Has anyone ever thought about who profits from all of this? Not the companies for sure, perhaps those who profit from keeping us all in fear and promoting how bad everything is. But the biggest profit is made by day traders. Who else gains from wild daily fluctuations?
So please, everyone WAKE UP and see that we are being manipulated. When are we going to put an end to this? It is NOT the politicians. It is not the government. It is those behind them, the ones that coincidentally also own the majority of the media outlets and are essentially controlling what we see and hear. The rest of us are just the victims being bought, sold and controlled by the trends they wish to forward, the fear they wish to push on us and the latest disaster, catastrophe or mass murder that ends up all over the papers, news and any other channel they can push it down our throats.
this is the most accurate comment i have seen we are being used by the media which is run by the
super rich for their profit
Lets be realistic and stop inventing words' the only thing driving the economy now is the very fact that people have to eat and have to buy that high dollar gas' The only ones spending very much money right now are the ones that have high paying jobs. If we think things are bad now just you wait until about january when those high heating bills start coming along. If there are severe winters this year a lot of people are going to be homeless and a lot of people are going to die. But mabey we can at least keep foreign aid going to help people over there.
All this bla bla and i have yet to see anyone state the fact that foreign country business come over here and build plants and produce goods here and our companies are closing the doors and going offshore to build substandard products and ship back here. I am so tired of buying the c### from overseas that wont work,wont fit,wont last but one time, maybe.
All I know right now is that we all going down the hill and I won't be surprised if on one given day in the near future we wake up one morning to hear that our economy has collapsed and the green Dollar will if we are lucky worth 50 cent.Most people have no idea what's going on in this world ,our leaders won't tell you that our national monetary system is in grave state,and if you think this can only can happen in Greece but never in America, I hope you are right.
Another scare mondering article...You know what the government should do? Leave the economy alone. The problem is that 90% of the people that do have jobs lack the confidence to spend. Stop scaring us! The media is just as much to blame in making us economic hypochondriacs, looking for every daily symptom of economic doom. If the government and media stop talking about the economy as if it's apocolyptic and let people get back to living, we will be fine. We'll always have wants and needs. We're not all just going to go die in a hole with nothing. It's up to companies and entrepreneurs to figure that out so they can profit and create jobs. If we're all so broke, why is Apple doing so well? They sell luxury technology. Economies change. Jobs change. No one should expect to be entitled to one job their entire life. It is not government's responsibility to fix people's careers. President Obama should tell citizens to believe in America and go out and buy something, learn something new, and believe in yourself. Stop dwelling on the negative. I own a small business in southern California and you know what, we're doing just fine because we've adapted. And let's face it, some Americans don't work that hard. I've known people on unemployment because they prefer it and it actually hinders them from finding work. I'm not saying all but these people do exist.
Look, we aren't going to buy until we know we can afford it. Demand won't go up until then, and one of the causes besides the unemployment is the stagnant salaries and low/no benefits. Speaking for myself (and family), I am tired of putting money out to corps that don't give a crap about this country. They want to use Americans to squeeze as much out of us as possible, then throw us out and move on to greener pastures. And I haven't got any of the new Apple products. By the way, I have friends that have been out of work (in So Cal) for 2 years and the biggest reason is age discrimination. These people have worked hard ALL their lives and have been passed over for younger people. It happens all the time.