Just looked up Cass Freight billing/receipts and their comments

According to their system of large scale billing/ receipts and assorted information they have a high degree of confidence in their ability to take an early look at economic activity, if it be increasing or decreasing

Their outlook is for reduced economic NA activity taking into account truck volume, rail and air freight

This is at odds with the unemployment numbers, but they also see reduced activity in European markets, Asian and china markets They also track the price of oil as an additional demand indicator

In other words except for any word about SA and Africa which was not included they are convinced a world recession is about to happen or may be happening now, in Europe , They place a great deal of confidence in the movement of goods to  tell them in advance what is about to happen if the trend continues for 3 or more back to back months

I know when I was trucking, the volume of goods moving was a very good indicator of economic activity 

I don't really know what this means to you and me

Just some interesting stuff.