Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/29/2016 10:52 -0500 – Zero Hedge

For those interested in hearing some horror stories from ground zero of America’s recession, look no further than Texas, where the best recap of sentiment on the ground comes straight from the Dallas Fed respondents, who have not been this depressed since the Global Financial Crisis.

Here are some key examples, starting with the one that summarizes it best:

“We are in a recession. Oil prices are a symptom, not the cause.”

Chemical Manufacturing

Last October we lost about 40 percent of our volume due to customer internal consolidations because of the weak economy. Most of the loss was due to product sourcing out of China. Our U.S.-based customer closed U.S. plants’ processing units and are buying from China sources, so it has no need for us to package its products for export around the globe. We have been granted new business that will come on board in March and April 2016. This will make up for some of the losses.

Don’t know if it is the weather, uncertainty created by the presidential election, or just a slowdown in the world economy, but things are definitely slowing down. Volumes are down and new orders are quiet. Low energy prices are the saving grace keeping margins good…. read more here