Let’s talk some trash! Occasionally here at USA Lamp we listen to NPR during our breaks. We were blown away from one of the radio spots between Ryssdal and Economist Michael McDonough.

Michael has been gathering information on a yearly basis on AAR (American Association of Railroads) carloads of waste. This is based on a mix of waste that is thrown out and shipped out into other states, via trains.

In school he studied anthropology and archaeology – one of the ways you can track ancient migrations of people, based on size, was how much trash they left to get to point A to point B. That is how he ran across these numbers and they made since over the years.

You can clearly see how trash collates with how our economy is doing, based on how much waste is being thrown away. The fact of the matter is that right now is that something is wrong in our economy, potentially, in the underlying economy.

Bloombergbriefs Chart of AAR Waste y/y vs. US GDP y/y

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