What is more, a significant portion of the economic growth came from accumulating inventories.

We are pretty sure you cannot continue to accumulate inventories at such a rapid rate without a slowdown.

Investor demand was lackluster and many securities dealers were unwilling to support the market if it meant accumulating large inventories.

The demand for storage space is hardly abating - as developers continue to build tiny apartments and service-sector companies accumulate growing inventories of old records - but storage buildings are disappearing.

In these and other models, households save for future consumption (by accumulating money balances) and in some cases firms can accumulate inventories for future sales.

In the second quarter, American companies, from manufacturers to retailers, had accumulated inventories, in effect selling less than they bought or made.

There have been many days of stable or rising prices because of buyers' willingness to accumulate inventories of low-priced oil.

Businesses continued to accumulate unwanted inventories in August, but the number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits fell in early October.

In his written testimony submitted on July 20 to the Senate Banking Committee, Mr. Greenspan acknowledged that accumulating inventories could signal a weakening economy.

"There is nothing structural that eliminates the possibility of business accumulating inventories too rapidly, then having to disgorge them," Richard D. Rippe, chief economist at Prudential Securities, said.