We hope it will be the case that tax cuts will bridge the gap until hiring picks up, but that seems like a pretty precarious plan. But it's the only plan we've got. |
We're going to have plenty of weak economic reports over the coming months. If they respond to every one, they'll get down to zero percent interest rates pretty damn quick. |
We're just now realizing how badly off the economy was in the second quarter, ... The wider trade gap, along with the weakness we saw in the business inventory numbers that came out this week and weaker construction spending, will probably result in a second-quarter revised GDP number that will be zero or even slightly negative. It will be an eye-opening number, but it's no more worrisome than what we've seen. |
We're likely to see large upward revision to earlier data, so it'll be harder for January to show a big gain. |
We're not likely to see reports as good as this the second half of the year. We know gasoline prices picked back up in July. But inflation should stay in basically in check. |
We're seeing both the quantity and quality of the jobs being created improving. |
We're shifting from an economy driven by consumer spending and home building to one driven by business investment. |
We've had a pretty good run here in anticipation that the Fed is nearly done raising interest rates. |
We've had very little economic growth, virtually no job growth. The only way you'll get income growth is through wage increases or through tax cuts. |
What happened in March, if you were thinking about buying a home this spring and you thought rates were going to rise, you may well have rushed into the market. The weather cooperated as well, making it easy for folks to get out and shop, particularly in the South. |
What would change this is if we were to see an unanticipated strengthening in the U.S. dollar. We'd see less people coming from Latin America. |
When all is said and done, we should still have a fairly healthy level of new home sales this year -- probably up 4 to 5 percent for the year. |
When combined with the anticipated double-digit gains in employer health-care costs, manufacturers may find it very difficult to add to their payrolls next year and may opt to work their existing work forces longer. |
When combined with the run-up in employee health-care costs, ... the inability to raise selling prices is the single most important reason that job growth has been lagging so much during this recovery. |
When the federal government increases the budget deficit it increases interest rates on everybody, so it is like a tax increase on borrowing. What that means is that mortgages will be more expensive. |