The business world loves a good economic indicator. Chief executives, budget planners, small-business owners, and others who must make assumptions about the health and direction of the economy take a keen interest in popular indicators such as consumer confidence, gross domestic product, housing starts, stock prices, employment data, and even the price of gold.

Economic indicators may take on extra significance when the nation is in a recession and anxious for signs of a recovery because the national psyche plays a key role in business cycles. People who are not experiencing any personal financial problems may nonetheless rein in their spending or alter the timing of major purchases when the news is telling them that the national economy is in difficult straits.

Right on the Kisser

When investors and economists anticipate that the economy is approaching a turning point, they may look in some unusual places for early indications of a shift in

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TODAY: Putin orders infrastructure overhaul; blogger charged; Rogozin praises cooperation with NATO; Abkhazia warns Georgia over blockade; criminal charges for 'negligent' Ingushetia police; fire at rights organization HQ; Medvedev warns United Russia against complacency.  Flag owners beware.Prime Minister Putin has ordered a review of all of Russia's Soviet-era structures in light of the Sayano-Shushenskaya power station disaster.  Russia's roads, airplanes, and pipelines have all shown signs of being dangerously outdated in recent times. Putin also promised payouts of $31,300 to each of the dead worker's families, to be paid by Rushydro.  The New York Times reports that blogger Mikhail Afanasyev, who questioned the government's handling of the disaster, has been charged with libel.  Envoy Dmitry Rogozin ...

You could say that BWI Holdings, Inc. is really into garbage. But the growing waste solutions company based in Alberta, Canada now goes well beyond standard residential trash handling. BWI has managed to firmly establish itself in a full range of related waste handling and recycling operations, serving commercial, industrial, construction, homebuilding, and even the oil field industry. They also provide special support to the construction industry, in the form of things like fence and sanitary facility rentals, as well as hydrovac site cleanup and water hauling.

In order to manage its diverse operations, BWI has divided itself into four business segments:

• Solid Waste • Liquid Services • Water Hauling • Septic Services

BWI’s source of revenue is based upon customer fees for waste collection, landfill disposal, and recycling. The company’s activities cover operations in Calgary, Edmonton, and the smaller Alberta communities of Edson and Red

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The world’s shipping industry has been beaten hard over the past six months. But news reports out this week are proving the sector may be on the rise. Excel Maritime (NYSE:EXM) surprised analysts today. Who’s next?

We are just a few hours away from the start of a holiday weekend. Along with about 50 million other Americans, I am headed to the beach. Not only will it be a great opportunity to spend a few days with my family, it will be a shot at an accurate gauge of the nation’s economy.

In case you did not know, I have spent many, many days plying the nation’s offshore waters in search of anything with fins. It just so happens some of the best fishing grounds are smack dab in the middle of the shipping lanes that point to Philadelphia.

One of my time-killing tactics between bites is to study the shipping traffic

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BWI Holdings, Inc. is growing in a critical part of the green movement that few people talk about or even consider. While most environmental attention remains focused on electric cars, solar cells, and windmills, this Canadian company has found success in the most unglamorous niche of all, garbage. Though still serving a relatively small population of businesses and residents, primarily in Alberta, BWI has set its sights on becoming the ultimate waste disposal and support enterprise. The company operates in four business segments: solid waste, liquid services, water hauling, and septic services.

Increasingly stringent government regulations require companies and individuals to be more vigilant in their handling of waste products, and this has opened up a huge opportunity for a full service waste processing operation like BWI. The company continues its growth-through-acquisition strategy with exceptional success, and now offers complete waste and recycling services

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by Derek Powell

The import export market is a busy place, where a multitude of small companies buy and sell an array of products. Many manufacturers sell products in this market, which is also ideal for investing in commodities, including agricultural products, gold and oil.

There are many diverse products available on the import export markets, including apparel, bed and bath items, stationery products, chemicals, hardware, food products, agricultural items, cell phones, plasma TVs, marine equipment, scrap metal — and the list goes on and on. Services are also sold, including printing, telecommunications methods, consulting.

In many cases, the import export market is used for B2B opportunities. Business partnerships are made daily, with sellers and buyers posting their products and making direct contact with interested parties around the world. Its an easy and cost effective way to do business on a global scale. The market is so diverse, you are certain …

By Eugene Tang and Bob Chen April 24 (Bloomberg) #8212; China boosted its gold reserves by 76 percent since 2003 and has the world’s fifth-biggest holding by country, said Hu Xiaolian, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The nation increased its reserves by 454 tons to 1,054 tons through domestic purchases and refining scrap metal, [...]div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?a=zjQ_CvCfJzw:aCgbBtWh1qw:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?a=zjQ_CvCfJzw:aCgbBtWh1qw:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?i=zjQ_CvCfJzw:aCgbBtWh1qw:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?a=zjQ_CvCfJzw:aCgbBtWh1qw:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?a=zjQ_CvCfJzw:aCgbBtWh1qw:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?i=zjQ_CvCfJzw:aCgbBtWh1qw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?a=zjQ_CvCfJzw:aCgbBtWh1qw:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?a=zjQ_CvCfJzw:aCgbBtWh1qw:l6gmwiTKsz0"img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?a=zjQ_CvCfJzw:aCgbBtWh1qw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/YourFinancialFuture?i=zjQ_CvCfJzw:aCgbBtWh1qw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /div

While I believe gold jumped Friday on this news regarding China building its reserves, the more important question to ask is over the longer run in terms of “why” and “implications for the dollar some far off day in the future”. I’m not going to ask those questions because the solution to everything is print more fiat currency and someone will buy them, and if not someone, we will buy them ourselves… but for those who care about “the very long term” (I’ve given up) it is something for you to think about.

It appears the last time China disclosed this information was 2003 when they were up to 600 tonnes, so this move to 1,054 is large in magnitude but spread over 6 years since the last update – hence not quite so exciting as first glance would have it appear. …

All the base metals were higher on Wednesday. Copper jumped nearly 4 cents from yesterday’s close to $1.5257/lb. Nickel gained 19 cents to finish at $4.5420/lb. Zinc rose slightly more than 2 pennies, ending at $0.5076/lb. Aluminum tacked on almost a cent, closing at $0.5935/lb., while lead moved up exactly one penny to $0.4630/lb.

The reason for the big day in base metals, China, the world’s biggest copper consumer, may boost imports of refined copper by 37% this year, bolstering world prices as a recession slashes demand in the U.S. and Europe, said Trafigura Beheer BV.

Inbound shipments could jump to about 2 million metric tons as scrap metal supplies plunge and Chinese government spending sustains consumption, said Simon Collins, of Trafigura Trading Shanghai Co., in an interview yesterday.

“China’s buying will stabilize prices,” said Collins. “We believe demand is better than elsewhere. The cable industry is reporting good orders, from the people

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Nucor Corporation (NUE) is the nation's largest recycler of steel scrap. Long-term contracts, constant cost-reduction efforts, higher steel prices, lower interest rates, strong cash flow position and a dominant acquisition strategy inspire our optimism with respect to the stock's performance in the coming quarters. The company's third-quarter 2008 profit nearly doubled, mainly because of robust sales from recently acquired steel and scrap-metal companies.However, the company expects a 40% decline in steel shipments for the fourth quarter of 2008, which will result in lower earnings. A slowdown in steel demand from the automobile sector and increased production in China are matters of concern.Rising prices of raw materials such as scrap and natural gas are serious issues facing the company. Thus, we maintain our Hold rating.Read the full analyst report on NUE "NUE" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? ...