First there's the elimination of a few year's growth in trade volume;
This kind of thing won't be reported to most of the population, even if they wouldn't look at it anyway;
"Pharmaceutical products are the single largest category in US wholesales, and thus in the goods-producing sector. In dollar terms, they account for over 12% of total wholesales. They’re even bigger than groceries. Year-over-year sales have soared 10%, in a sluggish economy, not because of volume increases, but because of price increases.
...without these soaring drug sales, the remainder of the goods-producing economy (“ex-drugs”) at the wholesale level has been heading south for over two years
...The growth in drug sales due to price increases covers up part of the weakness in the goods-producing sector “ex-drugs.” But the freight data, where drugs play a smaller role, bring the weakness of the goods-producing sector “ex-drugs” to the foreground.
So the massive multi-year downward adjustment of global trade volume brings it more in line with what’s happening in the freight sector in the US – and in many other countries."
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/07/22/global-trade-meets-reality-world-trade-monitor-wtm-adjusted-cass-freight-index/
