[Fed Chairman Alan] Greenspan would like to see employment gains of 150,000 or more jobs for a few months before dropping the words, 'considerable period'. |
[Fed] Chairman [Alan] Greenspan will have to act to boost confidence, ... Another cut at the Nov. 6 [Fed policy] meeting should not be ruled out, lowering the federal funds rate to 2.0 percent. Considering the weak economic outlook, the central bank will remain accommodative in the foreseeable future. |
[In a similar vein, the world is looking to the U.S. to lead a global recovery.] Clearly, the U.S. economy was and still is the locomotive pulling the world economy, ... All across Asia, Latin America, everywhere I go, they are looking to the United States for recovery. |
[Michigan's] sample size is smaller, so it's more volatile than Conference Board numbers, ... I would view this more as a period of digesting all the spending they've done rather than a really significant setback in consumer spending. |
A booming economic condition would result. |
A quarter-point cut [Tuesday] could weaken confidence by reinforcing pessimism in the market place, ... Instead, [Fed] Chairman Greenspan should stand pat, sending a positive message that economic recovery is in sight and no additional monetary stimulus is needed. |
A slight decline should not change the picture that much, ... If you look at the fundamentals, despite all the negative news, consumers are in pretty good shape. The jobless rate is pretty low, and their net worth is going up because house prices going up. |
All the pieces are in place to generate healthy economic growth for the balance of the year, ... But so far, political and economic uncertainties have overshadowed the strengthening in corporate profits. |
And now that the economy is improving, people have greater confidence to make purchases and build homes. |
Argentina is not a potential nightmare. It's a relatively small economy compared to Mexico and Brazil. |
As long as wages are not affected by higher oil prices, the impact on inflation and monetary policy should be minimal, especially in the first year of recovery, |
Both consumer and business confidence is depressed because of uncertainty surrounding the war, ... If we can somehow bring closure to the war situation, I would expect confidence to improve dramatically, taking with it the economy and the stock market. |
Business spending is the Achilles heel of the economy, ... The economic baton needs to pass from consumers to businesses. |
Businesses are going to be waiting and seeing. The most important factor is how consumers behave, ... The cost of capital is important, but in the final analysis, you've got to sell products. If you're not going to sell products, you're not going to need capacity. |
Businesses are still awfully cautious about hiring. They used to hire in anticipation of increase in demand. [Now] they try to wait till the last minute. |