Clearly the new focus of Fed attention is the stock market. The Fed is not focused on many of the indicators equity analysts emphasize. Instead, the Fed's focus is on aggregate wealth creation in the market. |
Clearly, Corporate America is still in hunker-down mode, reluctant to increase budgets for equipment and slow about increasing employment, ... That puts a weight around the neck of the recovery and keeps it at a moderate pace. |
Clearly, Corporate America is still in hunker-down mode, reluctant to increase budgets for equipment and slow about increasing employment. That puts a weight around the neck of the recovery and keeps it at a moderate pace. |
Coming after the energy shocks and Katrina, it's a remarkable spring-back. The economy seems to have an underlying resilience. |
Companies are paying more compensation and getting less productivity growth. |
Companies have been able to maintain incredible productivity growth for a low-growth economy. It does look like firms are finding ways to use technology and make do with fewer workers. |
corporate America in a very conservative mode, cutting costs, trying to rebuild profits -- not in the mood to hire or expand their businesses. |
Even in a healthy economy, you have layoffs, ... The Challenger number is more useful as a story telling device than an indicator. |
Even in a healthy economy, you have layoffs. The Challenger number is more useful as a story telling device than an indicator. |
Even with a positive outcome in the war, the economy is going to have lost a lot of momentum by the time it's over. We're not going to see a few weeks of weak data -- we'll see a few months of weak data. |
Even with a resolution to the situation in Iraq, the economy will still be suffering from some fairly significant headwinds, |
Even with a resolution to the situation in Iraq, the economy will still be suffering from some fairly significant headwinds. |
Even with this dip, the unemployment rate is still about a percentage point above the level where it might threaten inflation. That means there's plenty of wiggle room for the Fed on policy. They're going to be patient and not change the wording of their statement next week. |
Eventually that will slow down the U.S. consumer. We've got the seeds of a slowdown coming out of the housing market, but it hasn't really had that much impact yet on the economy. |
Everyone is all zeroed in on the consumer now, but the truth is that the consumer isn't the driver now. Confidence is picking up, but still at average levels. Wage growth is slow and the bulk of the tax cut is already in place. Finally, with all the debt people have taken out over the past several years the burden of paying monthly bills is leaving less for discretionary spending. |