We Know the Story, but the Pictures Really Do Tell It Well

The charts above vividly illustrate the sharp contraction the economy is going through.

The first chart covers capacity utilization, or the effective utilization of factory assets and production capability in the United States. Capacity utilization fell to 73.6% from 75.2%. This is the lowest level since December 2001.

The second chart shows inbound and outbound freight to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Inbound traffic was 19% below last December. For the LA area ports, outbound traffic continued to decline in December, and was 30% below the level of December 2007.