Were US companies slow to react to the severe recession starting in late 2007 and accelerating in 2008 and most of 2009, versus previous downturns?

Yes, says Rosalyn Wilson, author of this year's State of Logistics Report, who cites government data summarized in the table below, which shows inventory levels continued to build during the early part of the recession, much different than was the case in the 2001 economic downturn, followed by a dramatic reduction of inventories in late 2008.

Wilson says that may be due in large part to the growth of offshoring in the past decade, which made for longer supply chains and often the need to order goods from Asia much in advance.

We agree that's part of it, but also was the fact that it didn't really feel like a recession until the financial collapse of September, 2008, even though statistics later showed the recession had started much earlier.

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