1. The Scottish Office has come under fire for failing to increase capital spending on social work. 2. As output, capital spending and exports all retreat, blue-chip companies like Fujitsu and Mitsubishi Electric are cutting jobs, closing factories and slashing wages. 3. Ayers and other economists said rising productivity and falling labor costs should help corporations increase profits, which also could help boost capital spending. 4. A downward correction to stock prices, and an associated increase in the cost of equity capital, could compound a slowdown in the growth of capital spending. 5. Capital spending, another factor in past booms, will also be weak. 6. Capital spending at Motorola, the communications giant, has been curtailed because of a worldwide downturn in semiconductor sales and falling prices for these computer chips. 7. Capital spending, a source of so much strength for the national economy until last fall, is spotty now. 8. Corporate capital spending, one of the main engines of economic growth, is showing signs of rebounding. 9. Figures released just Tuesday, meanwhile, showed a marked decline in capital spending by Japanese corporations. 10. Executives, however, said they will temper hiring plans in the next three months, as well as reduce inventories and decrease capital spending, the report said. |