REVEILLE FOR GOVERNMENT ARSENALS?

摘要

With apologies to William Tecumseh Sherman, it's peace that is hell—for the American defense industry. Downsized in response to shrinking Pentagon budgets, the arms complex has dwindled to a handful of ungainly conglomerates—many beset by giant bottom-line problems. Stock prices of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co. hover near 52-week lows as earnings disappointments pile up. Bonds of defense contractors verge on junk status. "If the industry cannot raise the capital it needs," Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Pierre Chao warned in a Dec. 7 memo, "then the U. S. could have a national security problem."