Read more articles authored by Descartes Datamyne

Speed Dating for Customers

The Commerce Dept. wants to make you a match  Last Thursday, Commerce Sec. Gary Locke took questions during a live webcast about the administration’s National Export Initiative (NEI) to double U.S. exports in the next five years. (You can watch the webcast at...

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Cockeyed Optimism

The surge in imports may be a triumph of hope over reality. By Bill Armbruster Have U.S. importers been too optimistic about growth prospects in the U.S. this year? I think so — and I think that helps explain why there such was a mad scramble for container space out...

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The Datamyne In the News

The March cover story in American Shipper (subscription only) on “The Resilient NVO” features data and analysis from The Datamyne, including the top 100 non-vessel operating common carriers on Asia-to-U.S. and Europe-to-U.S. trade lanes based on TEU volumes,...

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Low Expectations

U.S. consumers are pessimistic; confidence is back in Asia, Brazil  The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index (released Feb. 23, based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. households through Feb. 17) now stands at 46.0 (1985=100), down from a relatively optimistic 56.5 in...

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OJ on Ice

A January cold snap spikes the price of citrus  Latest assessments from the U.S. Department of Agriculture put the loss to Florida citrus growers from January’s cold snap at 7.4 million boxes of fruit at minimum — this on top of a harvest forecast that was already 20%...

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