Biggest Boom

THE ECONOMY Biggest Boom This year is well on its way to being the biggest boom year of all. So the Joint Congressional Economic Committee on the Economic Report last week estimated on the basis of reports for the first six months. Items:

P: Gross national product (value of all goods and services) in the second quarter was at an annual rate of $368 billion, highest on record, v. $361 billion in the first quarter and $346 billion for all of 1952. CJ Consumer spending, at an annual rate of $226 billion in the first three months, climbed to a $228 billion rate in the second quarter.

P: Personal income of U.S. citizens in May reached an annual rate of $284 billion, up $1 billion from April. For the first five months of the year, personal income was 7% higher than in the first five months last year.

P:Steel production reached a new high of 57,960,457 tons during the first six months of 1953, more than 5,000,000 tons higher than the previous record for any half year.

P:New construction in the first half of 1953 hit $16 billion, highest level in history. Even new residential building hit a new peak, in spite of the tightening of mortgage money and a drop in building in May.

P:Students streaming out of schools and colleges went to work, and June employment jumped 1,500,000 to a record total of 63,172,000.

There were some pessimistic figures. Inventories reached a record $78 billion, up $4 billion from a year ago. And though the Commerce Department saw nothing to worry about, since the ratio of sales to inventories was the same as last year, many a businessman was not so sure. If sales fall off much, then some inventories might well prove too high, and businessmen short of cash might have to unload in a hurry. In some areas, sales would certainly fall. Farm income was on the way down, and sales of farm equipment were slipping. Nevertheless, most businessmen were optimistic about the rest of the year. Of 1,281 businessmen surveyed by Dun & Bradstreet, six put of ten expected that this year's fourth-quarter sales would be higher than last year's.

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