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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (28647)	5/29/1998 7:03:00 PM
From: Michael Bakunin	Respond to of 132070

Try: bea.doc.gov or, in constant 1992 dollars, bea.doc.gov Inventories to sales has been pretty flat. In my small opinion, this is not where your worries should be focused. I foresee less likelihood of another 1930's style depression than of a late-nineteenth century style erosion of margins. Too much competition is bad for business -- just ask Microsquish. mb (lowercase)

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (28647)	5/29/1998 7:18:00 PM
From: Earlie	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 132070

SB: The reference to inventories might have come from this morning's economic numbers. The economy is up 4.8% y-o-y (working from memory as I don't have actuals in front of me), That's the good news. The bad news (in the fine print) is that inventories are waaaaaay up. Of course they probably won't talk about that fact on CNBC (G). Best, Earlie

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (28647)	5/30/1998 10:34:00 AM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

SB, I just read an article in Forbes about how we weren't building inventories any more because of JIT and the glories of Technology. -g- Actually, the writer was well-intentioned and half informed. He just didn't realize that inventories were still soaring as the stats decreased because they had just been written off and were now carried at zero cost. -g- MB

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (28647)	6/1/1998 12:02:00 PM
From: HB	Respond to of 132070

Skeeter, that was the point that stood out the most to me from the economic indicators press release (which was linked on Fri's Yahoo news at the default quote screen). Inventory buildup used to be considered a good leading indicator of recession... a very important variable in "new postkeynesian synthesis" kind of 1976-vintage economic models (yeah I know Keynesian is a term of derision in some pop-culture circles, but those who ignore history... there was an interesting article in the New Yorker last year about the shortage of good Keynesian-trained econometricians and economists after the supply side/ rational expectations fads of the eighties... seems business was discovering some need for Keynesian insights...Of course we are all about to join the Austrian school). IMHO, picking up on that stat was RAZOR SHARP -g-. Cheers, HB