This is no time to be caught short of cash, or long on inventory, or both: not when interest rates are double what they were a year ago and revolving credit is hard to find. Not when the International Monetary Fund projects that the world’s advanced economies will grow just 1.4% next year. Not when it’s harder than ever to predict and balance supply and demand, which were whipsawed by the pandemic and have not yet regained equilibrium. Not when the number of business bankruptcies, while lower than at the peak of Covid, is up 23% over last year.