The Spectacular, Sudden Crash of the Global Economy

[NicholeW.]

The Spectacular, Sudden Crash of the Global Economy
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted February 24, 2009.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/128412/

The worldwide economic meltdown has sent the wheels spinning off the project of building a single, business-friendly global economy.

Worldwide, industrial production has ground to a halt. Goods are stacking up, but nobody's buying; the Washington Post reports that "the world is suddenly awash in almost everything: flat-panel televisions, bulldozers, Barbie dolls, strip malls, Burberry stores." A Hong Kong-based shipping broker told The Telegraph that his firm had "seen trade activity fall off a cliff. Asia-Europe is an unmit igated disaster." The Economist noted that one can now ship a container from China to Europe for free -- you only need to pick up the fuel and handling costs -- but half-empty freighters are the norm along the world's busiest shipping routes.  Global airfreight dropped by almost a quarter in December alone; Giovanni Bisignani, who heads a shipping industry trade group, called the "free fall" in global cargo "unprecedented and shocking."

[lisagurl]

Perhaps people will learn to live within their means, something our government needs to learn.

[Kaitlyn]

Perhaps people will learn to live within their means, something our government needs to learn.

Haven't you heard?  "Private virtue is public vice," or so our beloved leaders tell us.  Personally, I've never heard anything more Orwellian in my life.