Where does the U.S. fit in today in Parker Hannifins operations?
We are all over the world, in 40-some countries. We tend to manufacture close to our customers. So if the customer goes to China, that’s where we’ll set up shop. Likewise in South Korea or Eastern Europe. We’re not sending every job to China or to Mexico. We’d be crazy to do that. We’ve got about 30,000 employees in the U.S. and 3,500 jobs in Mexico. There’s a balance. We see a constant ebb and flow of jobs going all over. What is your outlook for overall growth? I’m no economist, but my sense is that we’ll be in the 3% to 4% range for gross domestic product growth. The real wild card is interest rates. Rates are going to go up next year. It’s going to moderate the GDP growth a little bit. But hopefully, the good times are here. We see all the industrial markets really hitting on all cylinders. The Fed just boosted interest rates by 50 basis points. Are you worried that higher rates will hurt your business? Am I concerned today? No. Going from a rate of 1% to 1.5% will not make much of
