RUSH OF CONFIDENCE

摘要

After suffering through their gloomiest four-year stretch in decades, executives at Caterpillar Inc. couldn't be more upbeat than they are today. Demand for construction gear is surging, helping drive the Peoria equipment maker's sales up 34%, to $6.47 billion, in the first quarter. What's more, Cat is raising prices and ―an important harbinger in this seemingly jobless rebound―it has even hung out the "help wanted" sign. "This is a broad-based recovery," says Chief Financial Officer F. Lynn McPheeters. "Virtually every sector of the business and every area geographically is coming back." Cat is far from alone. Across a wide swath of Corporate America, optimism is breaking out again, and the shift in outlook couldn't be more dramatic. A year ago, CEOs of all stripes complained about having "no visibility" about the future of the economy and their businesses. Faced with so much uncertainty, execs shunned expansion. Instead, with the bursting of the stock market bubble, continued fears of terrorism, a spate of corporate scandals, and, finally, the war in Iraq, company honchos hunkered down to concentrate on cutting costs and hoarding cash as they hacked away at capital-spending budgets and payrolls.