Business: Intensified Relaxation

While total retail sales held up, other sectors of the economy fared less well. In the third quarter, the annual rate of corporate profits before taxes dropped $3 billion to $42 billion. The resulting loss in corporate taxes will just about wash out chances for a federal budget surplus this year. Housing starts slipped 1% in November. Industrial production dropped two points in November to 105 (1957 equals 100), lowest level of the year. To describe these troubles. Per Jacobsson, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, last week contributed a new phrase in 1960’s game of economic wordmanship. His phrase: “An intensification of the relaxation.”