A stream of progress reports on the fourth quarter is coming out of US companies just now, much of it very upbeat: Amdahl Corp reports that its order book is showing no signs of any imminent recession in the large-scale computer industry, current business conditions are strong in all respects, and its performance in Europe is strong with no sign of a slowdon: vice-chairman Gene White also declares that he sees no signs that we are not going to have a very sparkling 1988.