(Reuters circulated the following story by Nick Carey on June 15, 2009.)
DETROIT The pace of economic decline in the United States appears to have slowed but there are few indications that a recovery will be anything but a long, drawn out affair, the top executive at America's No. 2 U.S. railroad said on Monday.
"It appears that we've seen a leveling out," Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp Chief Executive Matt Rose told Reuters on the sidelines of the National Summit in Detroit. "The next logical question is when does it start to come up."
"It's still too hard to tell, but it definitely feels like we're in the bottoming process," he added.
According to the Association of American Railroads, for the first 22 weeks of 2008 ending June 6 U.S. rail freight volumes were down 19.5 percent. But the pace of decline has slowed in recent weeks.
"But it's going to be a slow recovery, as there's nothing out there that suggests this will turn around quickly," Rose said.
Rose added that the sense he gets from customers and executives at other companies is that there is a "lot more sense of calm than there was 90 days ago" as the economic free fall that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers has eased.
"We're looking for recovery now," he said. "But everybody believes it's going to be a longer climb."
Not sure about the furloughs with the new HOS law coming next month. Reality is setting in a bit I think. It was said the world economy will retract 3% and the unemployment rate here in the states will be over 10% soon. I look around and listen, I don't see people consuming that much, housing still sucks but it is a bit better since Buckethead moved.
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I started ophph with nuthin, and I can safely say I have most of it left.... <img
