Word: downturn
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...fibers. As the leading U.S. maker of nylon, Dacron, Orion and several other synthetics, Du Pont depends on textile companies for a third of its sales volume. But the textile industry skidded into a sharp slump this year because of excess inventory, rising imports and falling prices. And that downturn caught chemical companies in the midst of a major expansion of fiber-making plants. One result is that the wholesale price of Dacron has dropped 40% in the past year. The problem, says Copeland, "can well be with us for at least another year...
Bigger Toilet. In so new and competitive a market, the downturn is enough to try even the most persistent salesman. Rockwell-Standard Corp. President Willard F. ("Al") Rockwell Jr., whose well-diversified company (other lines: automotive parts and construction equipment) turns out the $600,000 Jet Commander, complains that too many companies are fighting over too few customers. Underscoring the keenness of the competition, Rockwell tells of one prospective customer, who opted for a rival jet simply "because it has a bigger toilet." Rockwell-Standard, meanwhile, plans to merge with another jetmaker, North American Aviation, though the two companies announced...
Modest and mixed though it may be, the improvement was especially welcome, since the downturn that had been hurting Detroit seemed not to affect imports. In fact, sales of foreign-made autos are running 14% ahead of last year, when a record 658,000 imports were sold in the U.S., and foreign automakers now expect to sell better than 700,000 cars by year's end. The likelihood of an import record is even more remarkable since Volkswagen, though still accounting for well over half of all imports, is selling no more cars in the U.S. than...
Among economists and businessmen alike, today's foremost worry is how to keep wage escalation from becoming inflationary as the economy regains its momentum. "The major question is not whether we avoid a downturn, but what kind of advance we are likely to have," says Raymond Saulnier, who was chairman of President Eisenhower's Council of Economic Advisers and is now a Columbia University economics professor. Because the upturn will begin with low (currently 3.6%) unemployment, "it is virtually bound to be inflationary," insists Arthur Burns, another Eisenhower CEA chairman, now chairman of the National Bureau of Economic...
Overall, the picture is spotty-some bright spots, some gloom. But prospects are that for the first time since 1950, Western Europe's automakers will end the year with their first annual production downturn...