Let's skip this year. (Editorial).

I think it was only about 18 months ago that Alan Greenspan was telling us that the economy was too good; he was worried about inflation and there weren't enough people unemployed. The economy had to be slowed down. Is this what he really wanted?

The only good news you read about the economy now is that it probably can't get any worse. Isn't that uplifting? The problem with the can't get any worse scenario is that no one knows how long it will be before a turn-around will begin. It seems most economists have written off 2002 already. The rubber industry in 2002 will probably have a harder time turning things around because of the 0% percent car loan program and the tire recall in 2001 that have already borrowed from this year's production. This was before Ford announced substantial cutbacks and said it expected auto production would be off by one million units this year.

Can we possibly skip this year? Fast forward? How about a real leap year? We could avoid the results of an economy in a protracted slump - the plant closings, work-force rationalizations, benefit reductions, etc.

Hopefully the tea leaves are right, because most prognosticators expect the economy to begin to rebound this year, with the results showing in 2003. But one disturbing fact I came across was contained in Batelle's annual R&D forecast. Commenting on the figures, which show the increase in spending in the industrial sector is less than in recent years, they wrote: "Historically, inflation-adjusted reductions in R&D funding have resulted in periods of retrenchment that lasted over a few years."

So it looks like 2002 might not be a whole lot of fun, just a continuation of the last half of 2001.

You're taught that economic recessions are part of a cycle and are inevitable. That doesn't make them any easier, just more tolerable. If the Federal Reserve has as much influence on the economy as many claim it does, it obviously stepped on the brakes a little too hard. I don't mind tinkering when you're in a down part of the cycle, but can't find much justification for engineering during the upswing. If downturns are inevitable, you shouldn't need to use your brakes.