{"id":42880,"date":"2013-10-09T05:35:57","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T09:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/forex-news\/?p=42880"},"modified":"2013-10-09T05:35:57","modified_gmt":"2013-10-09T09:35:57","slug":"the-three-most-telling-economic-charts-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2013\/10\/09\/the-three-most-telling-economic-charts-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Three Most Telling Economic Charts in the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

By WallStreetDaily.com<\/u><\/a> <\/p>\n

With the wounds of the Great Recession still raw for every American, it\u2019s all too easy to fall into the fear trap.<\/p>\n

Specifically, fearing that our country is just one financial and\/or political misstep away from falling back into a deep, dark period of economic contraction and despair.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t believe the lies!<\/p>\n

While the mainstream media tirelessly tries to paint a picture of economic fragility, we\u2019ve come a long way.<\/p>\n

Of course, such progress isn\u2019t obvious if all we do is focus on the media headlines of the day.<\/p>\n

However, it\u00a0is<\/i>\u00a0obvious if we step back and get a little perspective on the situation.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t believe me? You will once you get a load of these charts\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Bank on Fewer Failures<\/b><\/p>\n

Driven by their insatiable greed, banks stood at the epicenter of the financial crisis. Hundreds of them went belly-up, including some of America\u2019s most storied firms.<\/p>\n

Despite considerable regulatory reforms, most Americans still distrust banks. Moreover, they believe the banking sector is so weak, it leaves the U.S. economy vulnerable to another crisis.<\/p>\n

Not true.<\/p>\n

As you can see, the number of\u00a0bank failures<\/a>\u00a0continues to plummet, dropping by about 50% each year since 2010.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In another sign of improving health, the number of institutions appearing on the unofficial\u00a0list of problem banks<\/a>\u00a0continues to drop, too.<\/p>\n

As Bill McBride of Calculated Risk reports, the latest list includes 685 institutions with assets of $238.7 billion. That\u2019s down from 873 institutions with assets of $334.9 billion, representing declines of 21% and 40%, respectively.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the banking sector is on the mend. More so than most people think.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just important financial institutions showing definite signs of healing. The lifeblood of American economic growth is, too\u2026<\/p>\n

Hit the Road, Jack!<\/b><\/p>\n

During the recession, the concept of a \u201cstaycation\u201d gained widespread popularity. Many consumers were so broke, they couldn\u2019t afford to travel anywhere. So they took off work and stayed put, exploring more of their own towns and cities.<\/p>\n

Not anymore. And the proof is in rising hotel occupancy rates\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Through September, year-over-year hotel occupancy rates rose by 5.8% to 67.8%.<\/p>\n

Even more telling\u2026 we\u2019re actually back to pre-recession levels, which represents significant progress from 2009.<\/p>\n

Keep An Eye on the Rails<\/b><\/p>\n

Many economists see rail traffic as a reliable leading economic indicator. And the reason is simple: It’s a \u201cderived demand\u201d industry.<\/p>\n

That means rail demand occurs only as a result of demand elsewhere in the economy for the products that are transported via rail.<\/p>\n

Lots of railroad activity indicates lots of economic activity.<\/p>\n

Lots of economic activity gives a much-needed boost to the country\u2019s $15.68 trillion GDP.<\/p>\n

And the latest data from the Association of American Railroads reveals that rail traffic is back, in a big way.<\/p>\n

In fact, over the last month, we\u2019ve seen the three busiest weeks for intermodal traffic volume (i.e. –\u00a0shipping containers<\/a>)\u00a0ever.<\/i><\/p>\n

This graph captures the progress. It shows average weekly intermodal traffic volumes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As you can see, we\u2019re on track for a record year. And we\u2019re miles away from the anemic traffic levels witnessed in 2009.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: Perspective matters. And now you have some.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the tape,<\/p>\n

Louis Basenese<\/p>\n

The post The Three Most Telling Economic Charts in the World<\/a> appeared first on Wall Street Daily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Article By WallStreetDaily.com<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Original Article: The Three Most Telling Economic Charts in the World<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By WallStreetDaily.com With the wounds of the Great Recession still raw for every American, it\u2019s all too easy to fall into the fear trap. Specifically, fearing that our country is just one financial and\/or political misstep away from falling back into a deep, dark period of economic contraction and despair. Don\u2019t believe the lies! While … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Three Most Telling Economic Charts in the World”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}