Federal Reserve Board officials seem content to let interest rates sit. Despite loss of advertising share nationwide, newspaper advertising growth surpasses that of the overall economy. Performance of classified-advertising categories demonstrates resilience. Retailers support a greater volume of inserts as a result of lower newsprint prices. Due to higher subscription and single-copy rates, circulation expenditures increase.
Cost management pays off.
The route to this surprising state of mind was somewhat circuitous, I confess. I was concerned that my 1996 forecast was ambitious and revised it downward when discouraging second-quarter results came in. I should have held on. Real economic growth started slowly, with only a 2.0 percent gain in the first quarter. It reached 4.7 percent in the second quarter, leaving some to worry that the expansion was shifting to overdrive and risking Federal Reserve Board intervention.