There are two false assumptions in his analogies: 1) That corporations don't already know this: I think most do, and cut their costs on infrastructure, overhea

There are two false assumptions in his analogies: 1) That corporations don't already know this: I think most do, and cut their costs on infrastructure, overhead, and process, not on areas that impact quality and customers. 2) That the recession is permanent: Accepting a slow downward spiral temporarily while waiting for a recovery probably could make sense to the risk analysts in some corporations. The trick comes in predicting what the company's losses will be vs. recovery time for the economy, and then the company. In short, smart companies look at all options. Their long-term cost to keep quality up and maintain customers might actually be more than shrinking for a year or two, then recovering. Professing that one approach is always the right one is incorrect. It depends on too many factors to generalize.