Masonry Magazine February 1975 Page. 8
Use the
system
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BLOK-TRUS
ADJUSTABLE ECONO-LOK®
STONE-LOKH
TYPE S ADJUSTABLE TIE
BLOK-LOK®
BLOK-TITE CONTROL JOINT
AA
WIRE PRODUCTS COMPANY
All AA Wire reinforcing and wall tie systems save labor costs. Many of them solve other mason problems such as Adjustable Econo-Lok for tying together double walls where the joints don't line up. Then there's Stone-Lok - the fast way to tie random shaped stone to a backup wall. Select the system that saves you more money and speeds your jobs. Send for your handy free Guide to AA systems. AA Wire Products Company, 6100 South New England Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60638.
AA
Washington Wire
(Continued from page 7)
INTEREST RATES will therefore keep falling, especially short rates on securities issued for, say, periods of no longer than one or two years. The banks' prime rate still has some way to come down to cite one key rate. A number of analysts thinks it could come down to 7% by the middle of 1975.
Long-term rates won't fall anything like short. There will be enormous demand for this kind of money from liquidity-squeezed corporations as well as the U.S. Treasury. Anyway, rapid inflation leads investors to insist on large, "inflation premiums," in the form of some additional interest yield.
THE EXPERTS SEE A PATTERN OF LEVELING- or a slightly plus trend-in economic activity in the second half of the year. Any late-year gains that do emerge will be insufficient to offset the big first-half losses. The consumer buying won't be strong enough to push auto and appliance sales back to pre-recession levels though there will be measurable improvements. New housing starts will only rise from the current 900,000 or so annual rate to a 1.3 million figure for 1975-still far below 1973's 2.4 million.
There'll be a return to inventory accumulation at some point, to be sure. But on the whole businessmen will remain quite cautious. They'll probably be placing orders very carefully and with moderation through the summer and perhaps the fall.
BUSINESSMEN WILL ALSO BE SLOW to restore the cuts in their plant-building programs they have been making in response to declining sales and difficulties in obtaining financing. Even if they should decide to step up their expansion plans, it would take several quarters to feel the impact.
An increase in the investment credit would be a spur, though even that would be a long-range reform and not a quick fix.
INCREASINGLY, THERE ARE SIGNS that the rate of inflation is slowing. There have already been some hopeful hints that rampaging prices will case in response to the severe weakening in business activity now taking place. Wholesale and consumer prices have been rising more slowly in recent months. This trend is likely to continue for a while as the recent dramatic decline in the basic materials sector works its way on through to consumer prices.
What's more, wage increases have been rising less rapidly. Last quarter, they rose at a 7.4%-a-year rate -as against 11% in the prior half. Unemployment has inhibited unions.
ECONOMISTS THINK THE INFLATION RATE could fall to 7% or 8% in 1975. That would be a solid improvement over the 12% rate registered last year. And it's achievable at a time that shows little economic strength anywhere in the world a better farm-crop outlook and much better wage behavior.
(Continued on page 13)
masonry
• February, 1975