Howard

Commerce

Containers not good indicators

WNYC keeps running a spot claiming that the height of the containers around Newark Airport (actually, Port Newark—the container facility) is an indicator that commerce is standing still. Not exactly. The containers testify to the vast number of imports over past decade or so. So much stuff was (and is) coming into the U.S., and so few exports were leaving, that the containers stacked up at this end of the pipeline. It's cheaper to discard empties than to ship them empty back to, say, China.