The Economy: The Rattles in the Engine

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In so saying, Roche epitomizes the sentiments of U.S. businessmen. Throughout the five-year-long expansion of U.S. business, Americans have sometimes exaggerated the problems confronting the economy. This has partly been a result of the psychological inability of people to believe that good times can last indefinitely. Men like Roche recall that whenever one important sector of the economy has flagged, several other major industries—electronics, color TV, aerospace—have made up the difference by spurting.

Thus the economy of the 1960s has shown a fantastic resilience to shock and slowdown. It has surmounted such strains as sluggish demand in 1961, a stock-market plunge in 1962, the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, a foreign monetary crisis in 1964, and the Viet Nam escalation in 1965. The problems of 1966 and beyond seem infinitely greater than earlier ones. But so, too, are the opportunities.