In a world full of indices for anything you can think of some things are likely to map the economy well at any point in time, until they don't. Perhaps I don't have enough of a formal economics/finance education, but looking at the current BDI graph and comparing it with the other economic indicators I didn't see that much consensus.
"... The BDI is a good leading indicator for economic growth and production ..."
So is sales of scrap metal indicated by the LME (London Metal Exchange) http://www.metalprices.com/#tables A lot of scrap metal merchants are going out of business in China at the moment as demand drops in the cut throat market.
If you're not actively trading, you should only care about long term changes. The best indicator I know is changes in productivity. It is a great predictor of permanent increases in wealth.
Recent data: http://www.investmenttools.com/futures/bdi_baltic_dry_index....