So the prospect of declining hard-currency revenue worries the biggest investors in the sector, which are pinning their hopes on further rate increases from the federal government.
As he admits, making policy when house prices are declining is harder than his model makes it look.
"A few years back, mineral prices were very high, but then they declined very hard," he told me.
Declining stocks were hard to find.
The Pew Charitable Trusts said in a 2011 study that no district has reaped a financial windfall from selling shuttered buildings, which are often in declining neighborhoods and hard to sell.
European countries, long viewed as another source of investment, have imposed wide-ranging sanctions that may eventually spread to Syria's oil industry, a crucial, if declining, source of hard currency.
While the declining cost of hard drives, optical technologies like DVD's, and research into new storage methods like holography are all potential threats to tape, few storage experts are predicting its demise.
While declining to provide hard numbers, last month he told us there were "tens of thousands" of users and just as many on the waitlist.
The generally liberal mainline churches have declined, while harder outfits like the Southern Baptists have spurted forward.
With artists and labels hit hard by declining sales over the last decade, it's hard to argue for lower royalty rates.
The company, based in Lisle, Ill., is among telecommunications companies hit hard by declining orders.
