It certainly disrupted economic life in New York City; there's no doubt about that. But on the business side, I think a lot of it will be made up eventually, some of it right away and some of it more spread out. |
The expectation was that the economy was going to get better and wages were going to rise and employment was going to increase. But you have the ingredients for a fundamentally different economic picture - one that's not so promising. |
This really underscores that just because there's a booming housing market, it doesn't translate into strong economic growth. It suggests that consumption spending has a built-in speed limit to it. You just can't expect to grow very fast. |
We've been borrowing our way out of the recession, and nothing else has kicked in to take over. |