Global shipping tells the real story on the economy.

[skolbe]

Henry - Thank you for your efforts here - very helpful. In general this aspect of the economy shows signs of the economy improving. Nice to read research in lieu of political pundits.

 

[mhtimber]

Henry, thanks for the in depth insight, very solid stuff!

I am in the tech sector and we seeing a return to a normal business cycle and predicable seasonality. Most of our customers are telling us they feel they have definitely bottomed out and many are predicting growth.

The analyst firms that provide guidance to the channel sales organizations are saying that in 2010 the message to customers needs to change from how you save them money and go back to how you are going make them more money; tech is back in the growth mode. Analysts are also saying that 2010 is time to start investing in training, development, and start to readjust compensation plans to ensure you can keep good talent as the employment market starts to heat up again.

I know there are always positive and negative indicators, my opinion is the best course out of this mess is to choose to grow your business (or your employers) and then resolve to generate enough activity what ever the numbers to hit your growth goals. Business volume is a numbers game, figure out what your current ratios are and plan your activity accordingly.

Just do it...as the ad says.

Cheers
Jeff