We're getting a flip with these numbers, ... We had been seeing all year long the consumer doing well and the manufacturing sector doing poorly. Here, consumer confidence has fallen, but there's a hint of the manufacturing sector stabilizing. |
We're looking at an innovative non-standard way to float the company, that may involve giving existing shareholders priority in any offering. We're not ruling anything out. |
We're much more upbeat now than a few weeks ago when there was a sort of creeping anxiety. |
What they [Fed officials] and we are concerned about is the 'staying power' of [consumer] spending in 2002. In particular, there is room for a large decline in motor vehicle sales in the January retail sales report. |
When we heal the earth, we heal ourselves. |
While the monthly data is often erratic and the government statisticians warn that it takes four months to establish a change in trend, it is pretty clear from the top chart that the explosion in housing from 1997 through early 2000 is ending. |