Having a small company that is involved in large, capital equipment type
contracts has certain advantages. One of them, that I noticed years ago, is
that the level of new orders almost always reflects an accurate prediction
of which way the general economy was heading, usually about 6 months before
it became a current topic of discussion in the media.

Last year my former company (now my oldest son's) had a tough year with a
major slowdown in new order activity and, in some cases, cancellation or
postponement of planned orders by several customers. The situation was not
unique to the company as many others involved in similar, high cost capital
equipment businesses experienced the same slowdown.

This has all changed. In the past 30 days the company has received over $6M
in new contracts and the quoting activity for more has picked up
substantially. If this continues, and past history says it will, 2008 will
be a very busy year. I'll betcha that by May or June all the talk will be
about how robust the US economy is.

Eisboch