Good News for Retailers and Producers, Particularly Those Buying/Selling Local

Credit Available Locally Despite National Trends
Unlike other areas where lending has all but come to a halt, most local banks have money to lend and are willing to do so. It's just harder to get a loan for customers who were already difficult in the first place. Banks and car dealerships interviewed for article are from Plattsburgh, Willsboro, Westport, and Saranac Lake. Tri-Lakes Today, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2008, p.5

Container Traffic Between Asia and U.S. Down
Container traffic is down by 6.9% in the first six months of 2008 as compared to 2007. The key trade route between Asia and the United States is now expected to show no growth at all through much of 2009, according to the Transpacific Stabliization Agreement (TSA), a U.S.-based research group of 15 major shipping lines. "The dry bulk freight market has been greatly weakened by a combination of slow growth of industrial production in China, stalling trade volumes caused by tighter credit conditions globally and an increasing economic slowdown in the world's developed economies," said Richard Hext, chief executive of Pacific Basin Shipping Ltd., Hong Kong's biggest dry-bulk carrier, in a statement. The Gazette, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008, p. B3