ECONOMICS 101:

For more wit and wisdom from the always-colorful CBS Records Inc. chief executive Walter Yetnikoff, consult the recent issue of Hitmakers, where Yetnikoff boasts that CBS has more Top 10 records than Warners. He quickly adds: “I’m not knocking Warners. I want to keep peace, for the moment anyhow. (WCI chairman) Steve Ross and I are smiling at each other and I happen to like that.” As for wisdom, Yetnikoff suggests that the record business functions as an uncannily accurate economic indicator. “When business gets bad in the record industry, the economy seems to go within six months,” he said. “We’re six months ahead of it. . . . When we were trying to get CBS to be sold to Sony, we followed the cycle--and there were these ups and downs that almost followed the business cycle. We took our chart and Warners’ chart and put them side by side, and both looked like a bad dental job. The basic ups and downs looked almost the same.”