Word: cottons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...nation surfeited with material abundance, but now it may be on the verge of a comeback. At the height of its biggest boom, the U.S. seems almost to be based on an economy of scarcity. Shortages of an astounding variety of goods-fuel oil, nonferrous metals, wool, copper, cotton denims, vinyl records, plastic bottles, to name a few-are jacking up prices, interfering with production, and in some cases directly threatening American living standards...
Long Wait. In New York, the National Association of Purchasing Management polled its members and found that products ranging from aluminum, copper and zinc to paper (both shipping boxes and office stationery), cotton, chemicals and corn syrup were available only after long waits for delivery. The McDonough Power Equipment Co., which makes lawnmowers and garden equipment, fears that the new plant it will open next spring will not be able to operate at capacity because it will not be able to get enough steel. In San Francisco, Levi Strauss & Co. is having to ration blue jeans to stores because...
Some of the shortages stem from short-lived causes. Early this year, for example, Mississippi floods drowned some cotton fields. But most of the trouble points to basic imbalances in the economy. Demand has now pushed production in U.S. major industries to an average 94% of capacity, a pace that is almost bound to create bottlenecks and long waits for deliveries. A number of industries, notably paper, steel and oil, have been unable to build as much capacity as they now need; their executives often grumble that environmentalists are to blame...
...businessmen stress a third reason for shortages: price controls. Critics charge that by preventing companies from raising prices of finished products as high as the market will bear, the controls have also made it impossible for American industrialists to pay the high prices that such materials as copper, cotton, wool, lumber and chemicals now command on world markets. Inevitably, the goods are being carried off by foreign buyers, especially the Japanese. ("The Japanese have bought up every pound of wool in the world!" a New York buyer hyperbolically exclaims.) Says Alan Greenspan, a member of TIME's Board...
Apostolic salesmanship is not all that is required: the movement's puritanism might impress Cotton Mather. There is no dating; marriage partners for disciples are selected by Moon and his lieutenants. Both men and women submit lists of five candidates and, after counseling, their leaders make a choice. Newly married couples must refrain from sex for 40 days after the wedding ceremony, which is the holiest act of the sect. Moon thunders against adultery and fornication; members who fall, he warns darkly, may never be saved...