Ahead of the Curve

According to Jerry Van de Water, president of the Paperboard Packaging Council, the U.S. folding carton industry is generally regarded as a harbinger of economic cycles because cartons are produced and entered into the supply stream months in advance of consumer goods production. What carton converters see now, he notes, is a fair predictor of where the economy will be in six to nine months. Has this segment, then, already weathered the big-picture worries currently dominating the headlines?