• U.S.

STATE OF BUSINESS: Hypochondriacs Take Note

2 minute read
TIME

A slight downtrend in business was reported last week. Industrial output in November, said the Federal Reserve Board, was down a notch to 228% of the 1935-39 average.(v. 231% the month before), largely because of a dip in auto output as assembly lines switched to new models. While manufacturers’ sales were up slightly in October (to $26.6 billion), their new orders were down $2 billion from a year ago, as customers realized that it was no longer necessary to place orders far in advance. Consumer credit also slowed its rate of rise, from 27 million in October 1952 to $187 million in October 1953.

But some important segments of the U.S. economy were still setting records. New construction outlays in November, for example, hit a peak for the month ($3 billion) ; and the SEC predicted this week that outlays for new plants and equipment in the next quarter will be at an annual rate of $28 billion, only 1% below the present pace. Christmas retail sales also seemed headed for a record, but probably not in Manhattan, hit by the newspaper strike (see PRESS).

For doomsayers who see every business lull as the onset of recession came some advice from Oldtime New Dealer David E. Lilienthal: “A country can become a hypochondriac too, just as a person can. A country can fall into the habit of popping a fever thermometer into its mouth to take its economic temperature every hour on the hour, listening anxiously to its every heartbeat, and forever psychoanalyzing itself. Frankly, we’ve had a bit too much of this lately.”

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