The SR-71 is the most flexible reconnaissance asset in the United States inventory.

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This is an asset-heavy enterprise with big inventory carries.

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Fixed asset investment, for example, has weakened materially, while inventory conditions, particularly in cyclical industries, have deteriorated.

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The unemployment situation is precarious, as "anything from Washington that might seem negative for business may spook management into slowing down expansion efforts and inventory replenishment, " says Marc Lowlicht, wealth management division head at Further Lane Asset Management .

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Asset-based lenders extend loans that are backed by marketable securities, equipment, inventory, accounts receivable and other business assets.

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If a lumber merchant in Philadelphia financed his inventory with a short-term loan, that loan would enter the banking system as an asset and somewhere down the line occasion the issuance of banknotes used to pay the lumberjacks in Wisconsin.

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