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Show Boom or Depression? Figure it out for Yourself I GOOD OMENS l..Employment at all-time high. More than 60,-000,000 60,-000,000 Americans working for "pay or profit" Fully 1,000,000 women have gone back to jobs since Jan. 1 many to help husbands "make ends meet," Skilled workers still scarce. 2. .Income payments to Individuals more than double prewar in first half although purchasing power of dollar sadly shrunk. 3..First half retail sales (in dollars) 2V4 times as large as in 1939. Unit sales drag. 4-No signs of decline in demand for "durables" (hard goods) such as motor vehicles, refrigerators, refrigera-tors, railroad equipment and machinery, although machinery orders have been slipping. 5.. Record-breaking Agricultural income has made farmers rich. Tota' estimated assets of $100,-000,000,000 $100,-000,000,000 four times prewar. 6..Exports zoomed to annual rate of $18,000,000,000 six times 1939 but overseas dollar supply Is drying up fast and June exports fell off 15 per cent. Import controls already imposed by Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and India. Most countries awaiting U. S. loans. Exports crumbled In 1921 for lack of foreign cash. 7. .Retail stores have started cautious rebuilding of stocks but policy of purchasing agents is mainly hand-to-mouth or 60 days. 8.. Production per factory employe rising gradually in most industries. 9.. Volume of necessitous repair work residential and non-residential has expanded substantially, calling for use of more materials. BAD OMENS 1-Broadening of inflation spiral, checked temporarily, tempo-rarily, restarted by steel-coal settlement and virtual certainty of higher costs, higher prices, for most consumers' goods. 2..Administration's program to "stop Russia" in western Europe, Asia, Africa, threatens U. S. with impoverishment if carried through. 3..Congress extended government controls over exports ex-ports and imports. This included petroleum. Exports to Russia will continue. 4. .Savings by individuals fell In first quarter to low-est low-est level since 1940. Cash and deposits dropped $1,800,000,000 but holdings of U. S. bonds rose $1,900,000,000. This was caution signal. 5..Manufacturers' Inventories of finished goods of numerous types increased somewhat alarmingly is the first half. 6..Residential, business and industrial construction has fallen far below expectations because of fantastic costs. 7..Some commodities slipping as pipelines fill. Despite De-spite sheet dearth all steel companies have surpluses sur-pluses of some products. Hardest hit are rubber and copper. In Akron there is considerable unemployment un-employment 8..Production of non-durables, particularly textiles, dropped slowly but steadily throughout first half. 9..High prices, fear of future, have led many families to defer buying |