From Calculated Risk comes a pretty graph showing how badly retailed sales collapsed in December.

Meanwhile, the Telegraph reports….

The OECD’s gauge of “Leading Indicators” – which gives warning of trend changes a few months in advance – shows an abrupt rupture in Asia and among commodity producers, with the most damage surfacing in countries with an export surplus that depend on sending goods abroad.

The index for Russia has seen the sharpest slide, falling 4.3 in November, China fell 3.1 and Germany was down 2.0, the worst performer in the G5 bloc for the third month in a row.

In other words, the worlds biggest net exporters are being hammered. You would think that at least the Gulf States would be setting pretty. After all, oil prices were sky high for most of last year. But Brad Setser says….

– The capital losses on the Gulf’s existing portfolio overwhelmed large inflows from high oil prices in 2008. Close to $300 billion flowed into the big Gulf funds — the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority/ Abu Dhabi Investment Council, the Kuwait Investment Authority, the Qatar Investment Authority and the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency’s foreign assets. But the market value of their Gulf’s foreign portfolio fell by an estimated $350 billion over the course of 2008. Throw in a roughly $30b fall in the Gulf’s reserves as hot money betting on a revaluation left and the total value of the Gulf’s external assets likely went down over the course of 2008.