A snap-shot of the world wide recession--and the ghost of Christmas future!

We're bombarded by statistics all the time--unemployment figures, Dow-Jones Index, consumer sentiment ratings--all to capture the state of affairs in the world of business.  These devices are, in part, reported to provide a sense of the place we in in the economic cycle...Is the recession worsening?  Are we at the "bottom"? And so on.  

However, the old cliche that a picture is worth a thousand words applies to the conclusions that one can reasonably draw from a recent post by Cory Doctorow.  What he shows is a photo of a huge fleet of cargo ships parked for what in reality is a long time in the Far East, off the shores of Singapore.  

The clustering of anchored carriers--larger than the combined navy fleets of the U.S. and Britain--is a stark harbinger of what is going come--most notably this Christmas!  To make the end-of-the-year the gift-giving season all are used to, these ships need to be loading and steaming to the places Santa will need the help to distribute all his goodies--but that's not likely to happen!  

My guess is that for children of all ages--and marketers by implication--the stocking over the fireplace might just do the entire job this year...and cut out the need for so many ships now just idling away the time in one huge watery parking lot!  Check out Cory's post for the eerie photo and more commentary!