Things are looking up, sorta kinda

Sept. 29, 2009

Eli S. Lustgarten, senior research analyst, Industrial Machinery and Equipment, of Longbow Research, will deliver the keynote address Wednesday morning, November 4, 2009 at the SMMA Fall Technical Conference in Chicago. With the recession coming to an end, Mr. Lustgarten will discuss the outlook for industrial end markets 2010-2012 with an emphasis on commodity costs. In his abstract Mr. Lustgarten states, "While 2010 is likely a transition year for most industrial end markets with modest volume gains, most production gains will be stronger than expected and reflect the end of inventory liquidation. Companies need to focus on 2010 to 2012, when the below average, muted recovery of 2010 gains strength and end market demand begins to grow sharply albeit from a depressed base."

Meanwhile, in private discussions yesterday at Emerson Exchange, Eli's partner in crime, Mark Douglass indicated he might be a believer in the "dead cat bounce" theory of how we're going to get out of this recession. I sure hope Eli's right and Mark is wrong.