Editorial: Where the News Is

Our reporters daily scour government and business sources for news to keep you fully informed about how actions on both fronts are affecting trucking and freight transportation.

State, federal and local governments retain the power to generate massive changes in our industry, but taking a stroll through recent headlines leaves us with the unshakeable feeling that the business world is a far more compelling place right now.

Managers and workers are laboring hard, adjusting and innovating, resulting in a dynamic economy that is growing again. Not by as much as most would like, certainly, but survey other countries’ economies before complaining too loudly.

In contrast, the federal government wallows hopelessly in quicksand and accomplishes little-to-nothing while high-ranking officials vow endlessly to address matters that should have been fixed a decade ago or more. Some on Capitol Hill are trying, but we still are writing a lot of government stories that include the phrase, “the issue was tabled until . . . .”

On the business side, trucking’s communications and technology vendors are merging and restructuring so as to better allocate capital; truck and engine maker Navistar International Corp. has sliced away devastating financial losses that were once considered potentially fatal and is now within a stone’s throw of regaining profitability; and the manufacturing sector continues to accelerate.

And that’s just in the past week.

The stability of fuel prices amid international chaos is another striking business reality. Israelis have fought Palestinians. Sunni Muslims fight Shiites. Libya has melted into chaos, and a group of mad men posts streaming video of beheadings.

Once this would have been a recipe for $8 a gallon diesel, but fuel actually is at its lowest level in more than two years, oil markets are stable, and the near universality of fuel surcharges has fixed a lot of problems that were crippling 10 years ago.

We’re not going to proclaim the end of history. An author once did that and got burned. And we also won’t recommend full-throttle Libertarianism.

What we would like to see is a federal government that builds a foundation for people and the businesses they create to thrive. Transportation infrastructure, education and many other things work better with some government intervention.

Now if only people in government would look at the business world and develop the urge to actually accomplish something useful.