The writing on the wall

It is a widely-held belief that whatever happens in the United States will, sooner or later, happen on this side of the Atlantic If that is so, we must view with some anxiety the sudden withdrawal of Timex from the home computer market in the U.S, a withdrawal announced with a somewhat ominous prediction from Mike Jacobi, vice-chairman of marketing and sales at Timex: “We believe instability in the market will cause the value of inventories to decline, making it difficult to make a reasonable profit.”