As many know, UTC's quarterly earnings call is available on the web, as is a set of slides summarizing the quarter's performance. It's worth looking over the data. In the third quarter UTC's revenues and profits were down from the comparable quarter of 2008, as expected. But, in spite of the reduction in both and in response to UTC's cost-cutting initiatives, operating profit MARGINS increased in four of UTC's six businesses; and were the highest ever reported by the company.

I find that nothing short of amazing. More important, it strongly suggests that UTC profit will soar when revenues pick up in 2010 and beyond. I'm sure that there are other companies that have been able to improve profit margins in the face of the `09 recession. But, they are few and far between.