We’re almost at the end of the so-called “peak season”. Those are the gravy months for the shipping industry. The months when thousands upon thousands of manufactured goods stream into this country on giant container ships to satisfy the hunger of demanding American Christmas shoppers.

But guess what. The “peak season” didn’t show up. To be more precise, the demanding American Christmas shoppers didn’t show up. They are nowhere to be found. They’re broke, that’s why.

After endless hype from the media about the predicted economic upsurge in the second half of 2011, we’re finally hearing some truth. The truth, of course, comes from overseas sources, and none of it is favorable.

The Journal of Commerce reported an admission by Cathay Pacific that the holiday cargo peak now looks to be “unlikely”. Even though it’s been obvious for some time, let’s at least give Cathay Pacific credit for telling the truth. Americans don’t hear the truth very often.

Others around the world do, though. Here are some of last weeks overseas headlines:

– “(BEIJING) The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday warned that Europe’s debt crisis risked plunging the global economy into a ‘lost decade’.

– “(London) – Italian debt default could hit European insurers hard.”

– “(London) – More investment bank jobs to go as revenues fall.”

– “(London) – UK jobless rate hits 15-year high, youth suffer.”

– “(Paris) France in danger of following in Greece and Italy’s footsteps.”

– “(Paris) – BNP Paribas bank to axe 1,400 jobs around world.”

– “(Leipzig) – Europe could be in worst hour since WWII: Merkel.”

– “(Canberra) – U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday said he was deeply concerned about the Eurozone crisis and market turmoil.”

It would have been nice if we could have read in a U.S. newspaper that Obama was “deeply concerned” about the crises and turmoil in his own country. The number of hungry and homeless people don’t seem to bother him. Neither do the number of unemployed. His only concern is his election to a second term, but if he doesn’t put two-and-two together and create dozens of millions of jobs here in the U.S. by revitalized our slumbering shipyards – like an earlier Democratic president did in the 1930s – he’ll go down in history as a bumbling idiot.