2/2/67 -4- from what I read and hear I believe that our happy situation is not shared by the economy as a whole. After years of unprecedented growth and prosperity there is convincing evidence that the United States economy is beginning to slow down and problem areas are developing. While gross national product may again reach a new high in 1967, it looks like the squeeze on corporate profits is on. Labor costs per unit are continuing to rise, and manufacturers are finding it more difficult to offset these through higher prices or reduce the impact through increased sales. It appears to me that 1967 is shaping up as a year of substantial wage inflation and prices and business spending are more sensitive to monetary restrictions than arc wages. This is bound to have an adverse impact on corporate profits in the year ahead. The balance of payments situation is far from solved, and other industrial, countries, notably Western Germany and Great Britain, are experiencing even more serious situations. At times like this one is tempted to become pessimistic, for if you are looking for problems there are plenty of problems to be found, not only in the economic sphere but in the fields of politics, education, foreign relations, juvenile delinquency and crime, urban rot, polluted air and polluted water, traffic congestion -- you name them. Plentiful though these problems be, turn them over and underneath each one there usually exists an opportunity. As business leaders we are charged with solving problems and recognizing opportunities, and I for one am convinced that United States business leadership is more than ordinarily