As steel goes, says an old economic dictum, so goes the economy. Looking at the charts last week, economists brought up on the old business axiom might have been puzzled by what they saw. Steel production, long the prime index of U.S. economic health, was down to a bare 62% of capacity, some 8% lower than the first-half average and 30% below the 1953 July level. But while steel lagged, the economy as a whole was still racing along at a near-record level. In Washington, the Federal Reserve Board announced that its...
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