Same playbook please,

I had just finished my July article for the newspaper on the industrial market for the Inland Empire (a little more light-hearted, less end-of-the-world than my usual pieces) when today, of all days, the LA Times reports that global shipping is "looking at a $20-billion black hole of losses. We can expect a lot of casualties".

Moreover:

"The ramifications for the Los Angeles and the Long Beach ports will be felt in some of the best-paying blue-collar jobs in the nation, as longshore workers lose hours at the docks, truckers have fewer containers to carry and railroad traffic ebbs. The Inland Empire, which has the nation's second-highest unemployment rate among urban areas because of the collapse of its warehouse and distribution system, will continue to suffer, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp."

Thanks Jack! But this was last years speech, all the doom and gloom stuff is over. Now it is just gloom.

And the Inland Empire has a high unemployment rate because of laid off construction workers, not necassarily just the transportation workers, but I am splitting hairs now.

Well, I already submitted the article to the paper. So we will let the readers decide.