October 19, 2003 Inventory Statistic May Hearken Economic Malaise Rather Than Rebound by Willett & Alway Understanding the implications that business inventories have on the broader U.S. economy is a game of context. If you focus on the statistic in abstraction from longer term trends in the economy you can build a coherent argument that escalating inventories are auspicious in the immediate term. Contrarily, the same statistic situated within the proper long-term context emerges as less immediately promising. Since the former opinion is being trumpeted by The Street, it may be of some service to elucidate the latter opinion...