Factors affecting Earnings Growth
The list of factors that could potentially
interrupt earnings growth is of course very long. Some of them
are set forth below, with no presumption that any of these is
more or less likely as of the turn of the New Millennium:
-
a decline in consumer demand,
-
a dearth of new development opportunities,
-
failures of major technological initiatives,
-
heightened foreign competition,
-
a resurgent labor movement,
-
an oil crisis,
-
a corporate tax increase,
-
newly discovered problems with the longer-run
consequences of downsizing and incentive-based
compensation for employees,
-
a decline in employee morale and productivity,
-
a war,
-
a terrorist attack or even
-
a new terrorist threat that hampers business
activities,
-
an industrial accident that suggests that certain
technical processes are more dangerous than
previously thought,
-
heightened regulatory or antitrust activity,
-
increased foreign tariffs or import quotas,
-
a depression abroad,
-
stricter environmental standards,
-
class-action lawsuits against corporations,
-
a suddenly erratic monetary policy,
-
systemic problems due to a failure of major banks
or financial institutions,
-
a widespread computer system problem,
-
large-scale weather problems,
-
natural disasters, and
- epidemics.
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