July 8, 2000 Stay Cool
I like to think of economic indicators as being a teeter-totter, with the
bulk of the indicators tipping it in one direction or another. I think we
can safely say that the economy is cooling, with employment and National
Association of Purchasing Managers numbers clearly pointing in that
direction. Higher interest rates seem to be slowing the consumer sector
down as well. Here at my firm, the only signs of inflation we can scrape
up are in service industry wages, which makes perfect sense. That reflects
in-big-demand techies as well as burger flippers at the other end of the
wage spectrum. Show me a restaurant or store that doesn't have a "help
wanted" sign prominently displayed. Hopefully, the Fed will call off its
dogs and stop raising interest rates.
More brilliance on the part of the Justice Department: they opposed the
WorldCom-Sprint merger because it would result in two firms controlling 77%
of the market, but 50% is already controlled by AT&T. Long-distance phone
calling is a dying industry, so just what is it they're protecting us from?
More ironic is the fact that Sprint will probably be acquired by Deutsche
Telekom, apparently with Justice's blessing. I cannot fathom spending
tens of millions of taxpayers' dollars going after some of America's
strongest and most globally-competitive companies. I think we're in the
rabbithole with Alice.
