Retailers are doing a much better job in terms of inventory control.

The underlying premise of why we're seeing all of these warnings is a slowing economic cycle. The analysts didn't foresee that growth would slow down as much as they thought.

All the same, a rate cut won't have any immediate effect on companies' profits. These rate changes take six months to a year to be felt, which means it won't be until the second quarter of next year that the last interest rate hike makes its way through the economy. So it may look pretty bleak until then.

Analysts have always been biased. It's in their nature to be partial. They're covering an industry because they believe in that industry, and they're covering the stocks that are the best in the industry.

We think when all is said and done, you're talking about something like 13 percent growth.

Through 2001 profit gains are expected to continue slowing, but get back to more sustainable levels. People are viewing this as terrible that growth is slowing, but that's going on the assumption that high double-digit growth is normal.

There are a lot of upside surprises. It's just across the board.

Now we're in slash and burn time. We think that analysts are going to take down estimates to 5 or 6 percent growth.

The underlying themes are interest rates and commodity pricing. Home buying has slowed down, thus the consumer furnishings area has started to hurt, and in some cases consumers aren't buying any clothes anymore.