“One can relish the varied idiocy of human action during a panic to the full, while it is a time of great tragedy, nothing is being lost but money.” John Kenneth Galbraith - “The Great Crash of 1929”(1955)“If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.” Warren BuffettBy George Lauriat, AJOTThere are many comparisons being made of the current economic crisis to that of the “Great [US stock market] Crash of 1929” and ensuing “Great Depression” which unofficially ended with the re-tooling of US industries during the lead up to the Second World War. Often these comparisons are at best specious, comparing wildly different economic circumstances and systems but there is common ground, today’s issues as those of 1929, from at least a global perspective, began and ended [or will end] with the US. Perception is the reality in global markets. This is the first real recession in the age of the WEB, with global potentialities, economic and otherwise now reaching billions rather than millions of people. This has happened in less than a generation. And now those excluded are more isolated from global community than anytime in history. Like a common cold that spreads among passengers in a packed railway car, some will do worse than others. For example, while the US and Europe are expected to have very modest or possibly even slightly negative GDP growth, China is anticipated to still maintain a 8.5% growth rate and developing nations like Brazil and Chile may miss the global dip altogether. Levels of government intervention will have more to say about the severity and length of the downturn than the toxicity of the infection itself. But this particular recession is a global problem, demanding shared solutions occurring at a time of when commonality is in short supply. Will Beijing come around and perhaps let the Yuan float. Will the Obama Administration look more like FDR’s or Jimmy Carter’s? Can Germany, France, the UK and the rest of Europe actually increase worker productivity? Will India be the next China, fulfilling economic-industrial aspirations or simply remain India? Can the Middle East avoid being pulled into the credit catastrophe? Which Russia comes to the fore; Imperial Russia or the one seeking to overhaul a badly managed near criminalized economy? Can South America avoid the mess? Can Africa extricate itself from the mess? There’s always an end to a recession, a time when the upturn begins and the confidence that investment, whether it is in sweat equity or direct financial gain is greater than risk extended. That moment is certainly not measurable by any scientific or even economic means, but supply and demand economics begins with a simple belief that if a service is asked for and such service is provided, that it will be paid for in full. The alternative deflation puts all at risk. If government underscores this baseline approach then perhaps this “Recession of 2008” shall be a footnote rather a full chapter in some new version of a global economic tome on the era. SAILING A SEA OF GLOOM The year 2008 was quite literally “the best of times and the worse” for nearly the entire shipping industry which now, at least in the short term, faces an uncertain future. Freight rates were running at near all time highs as demand outstripped supply. The UNCTAD (United Nation Conference on Trade and Development) Review of Maritime Transport 2008 reported that in 2007, “Growth in dry bulk trade [editor’s note: includes container and dry bulk shipping] is estimated at 5.6% with the five major bulks, fuelled mainly by the needs of China’s metal industries, growing even faster at 6.4%.” This rate was almost double the world’s GDP growth of 3.8% in 2007. During the same period world merchandise exports grew by 5.5%. In short, shipping, particularly dry bulk and containerized shipping outstripped world GDP growth as China’s exports, US and European consumption fueled seaborne movements. This year growth in developed e