Editorial: Hoping for a Year of Less Danger

A year ago in this space, we urged the Federal Reserve to make a bold switch from fighting inflation to helping the falling economy bottom out with a soft landing.

In the 12 months since, the Fed has cut the interest rate it charges banks 11 times, in a struggle with the economy more severe than anyone wanted to predict. Hopes for a relatively easy adjustment with minimum pain at the end of a boom cycle were dashed on the hard realities of a recession.

There is nothing soft about what has happened since our last annual summation of the news that affects our business lives.

At the end of 2001, we look back on a year of drama punctuated by the knee-buckling events of Sept. 11. The drama actually began 14 months ago with one of the most remarkable presidential elections in U.S. history. We thought the headlines following the narrow turns of fortune that placed George W. Bush in the White House would not be matched for a long time to come. But we weren't able to foretell what the economy and foreign terrorists held in store for us.

The events fo Sept. 11 did not bring the whole world crashing down around us, althuogh that was the bleak feeling in the gut as we watched the World Trade Centers collapse and the Pentagon burn. The stock market fell into a swoon but did not crash. Consumers and travelers headed for shelter, but most did not hunker down for long. And trucking continued doing what it always does, without pause.

Indeed, among the many searing images of 2001, one worthy of history is what American Trucking Associations President William J. Canary saw as he looked out of his office onto the eight lanes of the Washington Beltway that circles the national capital. At the height of shock and chaos, while most of the world we know stood transfixed, the trucks continued to roll. That image filled many in our industry with determination and resolve.

And the trucks roll on, through economic uncertainty, their way eased a bit by relief in the price of fuel that seems to run counter to intuition. The silver lining also includes relief from the driver shortage, but that is only because demand for trucking services has flattened out or receded.

So here it is, the beginning of another year, and we speak hopefully again of an improving economy. This time we also hope for a return of sanity to the world. In both cases, we realize any progress coming our way probably will be slow and deliberate, not dramatic.

This story appeared in the Dec. 31 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.