What it's all adding up to is an economy that's starting to show signs of slowing down. It's not happening very quickly but the earlier Fed rate increases are having an effect. |
What we worry about is that some of the decline in the stock market can spill over and begin to erode confidence. If the stock market takes out Sept. 21 lows, people are going to worry that something's wrong -- I can see the headlines -- and I wonder what that will do to people. |
Whether it's 7 percent or 7.3 percent the point remains the same: Growth is really strong and what's obviously an issue is how long this going to continue and what are we going to see going forward for the first few quarters of 2000. |
Whether the Fed is going to tighten or not is really going to be determined, I think, by the flow of data we get between now and Aug. 24, |
Whether the Fed is going to tighten or not is really going to be determined, I think, by the flow of data we get between now and Aug. 24. |