Six Warning Signs That the Economy Is in Trouble by Tony Sagami, Mauldin Economics On July 14, I wrote about the danger developing in the transportation sector, and things are looking even worse today. Here’s what I mean: Look Out Below #1: Royal Dutch Shell reported its quarterly results last week—$3.4 billion, down from $5.1 billion for the same quarter a year ago—and warned that “today’s oil price downturn could last for several years.” Economy trouble In anticipation of tough times, Shell slashed its 2015 capital expenditure budget by 20% and is going to lay off 6,500 high-paying jobs (not Burger King Worldwide Inc (NYSE:BKW)-type jobs) this year. Look Out Below #2: UPS is a very good barometer of the consumer end of our economy: It’s the largest component of the Dow Jones Transportation Average both by sales and market valuation. And UPS isn’t very confident about the US economy. Here is what UPS CEO David Abney said in a recent conference call with analysts: If you just look at in [sic] January, the GDP forecast we thought was going to be about 3.1%. Now the thinking in July is about 2.3%, so let’s say a pretty significant decrease. Why so glum? The continued strength of the US dollar and I think this impending rate hike by the Fed appears to be holding back some US growth. Abney has good reason to complain: UPS’s revenue fell 1.2% over the last 12 months. Not... More