Please don't click onto another site when you read the following words: The For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index. Pleeeeease, stay with us - it's important. Well, it might be important. The American Trucking Association's tonnage index for May fell - the second consecutive month-to-month drop. The index is now at a six-month low. ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said the numbers are consistent with anecdotal reports from trucking companies that indicated a soft and spotty May. They're also consistent with a decline in container volume last month at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach (LABO). That's the third monthly decline in a row.

What's especially curious about those two reports is today's decision by the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates at 5.25 percent, a signal that the nation's central bank is still more concerned about inflation getting out of control than the chances of a stalled-out economy. After a terrible first quarter, economic growth is supposedly accelerating at an annual pace of about 3 percent. That's what the NYT says anyway. Still, is it just possible that the port people and the trucking people are trying to tell us that consumer demand is slowing down, signaling a far rockier 12-18 months than what most economists are projecting?