In December 1998, after a year in which Asian demand for B.C. lumber had fallen dramatically, an article in The Globe and Mail had the following headline: "Drastic Cost Reductions Needed to Save 13 B.C. Sawmills".

a) Does this headline suggest that B.C. lumber companies are not profit maximizers?

b) If short-run unit costs are "too high", what is stopping the lumber companies from simply moving along their long-run average cost curve to a more efficient level?