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Comment by bt1a | Hacker News Reader

transportation, warehousing, and utilities being a headlining loser here is the most striking.... perhaps?

Heavy Truck Sales Collapsed in Q4; Down 32.5% Year-over-Year in December - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46514490 - January 2026

(heavy trucks sales collapse is a recession indicator)

Craig Fuller - the CEO of Freightwave - has been indicating that their freight data clearly suggests the US economy is in much worse shape than official reporting.

this is usually more accurate than most indicators - as America's economy runs on trucks not donuts.

more trucks on the road - more goods flowing - heavy machinery included, things getting built etc. less trucks - trouble

Certainly sounds like canaries telling us the rest of the economy is not doing great. (Not warning us that it's going to have problems. Telling us it already does.)

The economy canaries can't tell us anything: they're already dead.

That's literally how the canaries would inform the miners about toxic gases.

"Yes, Ted. That was the joke."

Happily, this wasn't actually the case. Canaries faint long before they die and miners would carry small resuscitation chambers where the canaries could be reawakened in an oxygen-rich atmosphere. The Science and Industry Museum in Liverpool has one in their collection: https://blog.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/canary-resuscit...

Interesting, but I frankly doubt the birds remained utterly unharmed. Birds are really sensitive to many gases, with the common anecdote being to not cook with nonstick pans if you have a parrot.

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