Whither away the US economy?

Normally, most of the time, and for most economies I've looked at, import volumes are strongly correlated with indicators of the real economy.  I've plotted the year-on-year change in my coinciding index for the US, (left hand axis) against the volume of imports into the US (right hand axis, extreme adjusted)

Note how imports have turned at the same time as, or even slightly ahead of, the overall economy.

And note how weak they are now.  Now of course, a weaker US$ has helped ....   But.  Combine this with the soggy PMI and I'm started to get a little concerned that the sharp fiscal tightening this year is starting to have unfortunate effects.  Wouldn't be the first time.

[Double-click to see bigger chart]