STATE OF BUSINESS: Still on the Rise

To many businessmen, worried about soft spots in the economy, the nation's bankers last week gave solid reassurance of the continued strength of the boom. The demand for credit for expansion of all kinds is still so great—and money so tight—that Manhattan's Bankers Trust Co. boosted its prime rate for loans from 4% to 4½%. Banks around the country soon followed. Two days later the Federal Reserve Board approved a boost in the discount rate by four of its twelve district banks from 3% to 3½%. The new Fed rates, highest since 1933, were designed to bring the Fed's...