Question: Improved methods of inventory control were supposed to reduce fluctuations in inventory stocks. It is clear that these methods have helped reduce the equilibrium inventory/sales ratios in both the manufacturing and trade sectors over the past decade. Yet we find that during the 2001 recession, inventory investment accounted for more than the total decline in real GDP, the first time that had happened since 1949. Explain whether this result is due to a set of odd coincidences, or whether the improved methods of inventory control actually caused bigger fluctuations in inventory investment relative to final sales.