

The best economic indicator you've never heard of - alex_c
http://www.slate.com/id/2090303/pagenum/all/

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hugh
Interesting, I had indeed not heard of it. And before you get all confused
like I did, I should point out that this article is from 2003.

Recent data:
[http://www.investmenttools.com/futures/bdi_baltic_dry_index....](http://www.investmenttools.com/futures/bdi_baltic_dry_index.htm)

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phr
They mention it fairly often on the day-time market-watching shows on CNBC.

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bkmrkr
Also the index fell by 90% recently

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jamiequint
This is kind of dubious. Check out the BDI graph here.

[http://www.investmenttools.com/futures/bdi_baltic_dry_index....](http://www.investmenttools.com/futures/bdi_baltic_dry_index.htm)

In a world full of indices for anything you can think of some things are
likely to map the economy well at any point in time, until they don't. Perhaps
I don't have enough of a formal economics/finance education, but looking at
the current BDI graph and comparing it with the other economic indicators I
didn't see that much consensus.

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dhimes
Here's another reference to various economic indicators that appeared in the
Boston Globe back in late October.

[http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/10/26/...](http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/10/26/off_the_charts?mode=PF)

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bmj
Yet another post about it, and more recent:

[http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/the-baltic-dry-
ind...](http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/the-baltic-dry-index-the-
only-economic-indicator-worth-tracking-right-now/8453)

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dougp
I am a fan of the christmas light economic indicator
<http://www.reason.com/news/show/32837.html>

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bootload
_"... The BDI is a good leading indicator for economic growth and production
..."_

So is sales of scrap metal indicated by the LME (London Metal Exchange)
<http://www.metalprices.com/#tables> A lot of scrap metal merchants are going
out of business in China at the moment as demand drops in the cut throat
market.

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ivankirigin
If you're not actively trading, you should only care about long term changes.
The best indicator I know is changes in productivity. It is a great predictor
of permanent increases in wealth.

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biohacker42
The BDI lags large macro economic trends like growth in China. And it doesn't
reveal anything more specific then booming growth in trade with China.

