GVTucker,<<<RE: But I can't find a good excuse for the technology slowdown beyond the fact that the economy is tanking.>>>
<<<Unfortunately, I can't, either. >>>
I maybe naive. The only economics course I ever took was the home type, but isn't it obvious?
When you raise interest rates like crazy 5 or 6 times in a short period of time, money supply tightens - and the last one at 50 basis points hit home overnight.
New car and housing sales plummet causing sales to cease in a bunch of related industries. If you are putting off purchase of a home, automobile, refrigerators, dishwashers, et al, could PC's be very far behind?
Does it take a Nobel prize in economics to see that in that situation, a lot of industries would put expansion plans on hold? Especially with all those computer systems in place sensing a slow down in orders - all kinds of purchase orders are immediately cancelled.
If the US economy, as they say, catches a cold, the other economies catch pneumonia.
Is there a correlation between those rate hikes and this slow down?
I never went to Wharton or any other business school and the only kind of economics course I ever took, we had to wear aprons (Home Ec?), but it seems pretty obvious.
Mary |
