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As I mentioned in earlier columns, there are times when the economic data point in one direction, and businessmen in the privacy of their board rooms point in another. A case in point is the recent report that the recession is over: the housing and manufacturing sectors are recovering; once threatened with terminal illness, Ford Motor Company seems to have moved into profit; and retailers have sheathed the hari-kari knives they sharpened in anticipation of a gloomy holiday season as many categories of goods -- sporting goods, appliances, apparel -- sell at the most robust pace in a year, although not at the levels recorded at the peak of the consumer boom. Sales last month ran...