(NaturalNews) On January 13, which seemed nothing more than a usual Wednesday, something truly historic happened. Our planet's trading ships, those awe-inspiring behemoth trading platforms that carry essential grains, cement, coal, iron and other raw product around the world simply stopped. With the help of GoodGopher and GPS tracking technology, we're able to verify this statement and further investigate the halt that didn't just happen in the blink of an eye. In fact, for the past several years, global trading has consistently gone down. All of the signs were there, but our attention has been skillfully diverted.
 

From bad to worse

One week later, on January 20, things got even heavier. How do we know that? The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is an economic indicator that calculates the price of shipping raw materials over sea. As the index goes down, fewer goods are produced around the world and it becomes more expensive to operate and maintain those magnate sea-faring transports. Every minute of low BDI is translated into incredible financial losses for the companies that own the freighters.

On January 13, the index was 402 points. One week later, it was 369. Both of these were never-before-seen figures. To put things into perspective, the BDI in May 2008 was 11,793 points, which meant trading was so profitable that you could literally save money if you bought slippers from half-way around the world. In the winter of the same year, the BDI dropped an incredible 94%, to 663 points – the lowest figure it had ever reached since it was introduced.
 

Like the calm before the storm

Many financial experts made consistent arguments that the BDI and other market indicators have the ability to predict an upcoming collapse. Business Insider provides an accurate history of how market crashes have actually been preceded by big swings in the BDI. These examples include the last financial crisis of 2008, the two-year American recession that started in 2001 and, of course, the dot-com bubble burst of 1999. What's increasingly worrisome for the world economy is that, right now, the European and Asian markets are also significantly slowing down.
 

Out of the frying pan, into the fire

As of January 23, the BDI has reached 354 points and it seems there are no more chances to save it. This led Forbes.com to put forward quite an intriguing article last week. What's interesting is that Tim Worstall brings back into discussion the theory behind this economic marker: Things might have gone wrong around the world, "[b]ut does this have any impact on the rest of us? Well, no, not really," he says. He then moves on to argue the sound point that the current level of trade around the world is, in fact, slowing down and that things will balance out in the end.