Container shipping rates fall as new capacity hits the water
Supply finally caught the demand it was chasing.
Whatever happens next, the baseline has moved. The old assumptions no longer describe the room they were built to describe.
Expect the next chapter to be quieter than this one, and more consequential. The loud part is usually the prologue.
The numbers tell part of the story. The rest lives in the texture of how people are actually behaving when no one is watching.
Skeptics point to the long history of premature declarations. Their caution is earned, and worth keeping close at hand.
The decision-makers involved insist nothing is settled, which is exactly what decision-makers say when something is starting to settle.
The institutional response has been measured, which in this context is a polite way of saying slow.
