Readers Talk Back, April 2001

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Whistling a Happy Tune

Re: Embracing Mediocrity, Tech Investors Sing a Hopeful Tune

George Mannes: Have you ever heard the old standby tune that runs "I whistle a happy tune and every single time the happiness in the tune convinces me that I'm not afraid. When shivering in my shoes, I strike a careless pose and..." I could be wrong, but I think it was by Harold Arlen.

As you may have guessed from the song, I'm an old coot. I was there in '74-'75 and '81-'82, and anyone who thinks this is over is kidding himself. The glut of manufacturing capacity and the stupefying load of debt -- much of it varying from dodgy to outright nonperforming -- is not going to go away, not any time soon. The liquidity that Alan Greenspan is pouring on the economy will come back to haunt us -- trust me, it will. ...