Those are all economists. They used to be employed by Wall Street, and now they're consultants. |
Those who have lived through the 1970s remember the tremendous toll that accelerating inflation took on the economy and vowed to never make that mistake again, |
To me, a cut now would just entice households to go deeper into debt, and that game has a limit to it. |
Unfortunately, the Fed actually has to confirm the market's expectations. If the Fed doesn't move, then we'll reverse these trades. Yields will fall and the stock market will rise, and we'll kind of reset the shot clock. |
Unfortunately, we no longer have the funds that could have been used to provide the seed money for Social Security privatization. It seems to me that he dropped the ball. |
Up until 2000, households in the post-War period had never experienced a decline in their net worth on a year-end to year-end basis, ... But they did in 2000, they did in 2001, and they're on course for it again in 2002. |
We could see corporations building up their inventories toward the end of 1999 for fear they won't be able to get goods in. They'll borrow to do that, and that will put upward pressure on interest rates as well. |
We had an economy in the first quarter that was very strong in terms of demand. Manufacturers were working very hard to meet that demand. The Fed is going to have to raise interest rates some more. |
We have experienced asset bubbles, and we now have an economy that is more highly leveraged than it ever has been in the post-World War II period. Greenspan has been instrumental in bringing about this high leverage. |
We really don't want to give Greenspan a grade yet. You want to wait a year or two to see whether the seeds turn to weeds. |
We should get a little better growth in the second half -- but not enough. By the end of the year, maybe we will have enough to stabilize the unemployment rate, but I think we will probably see a further drift up in the unemployment rate. |
We're a what's-my-monthly-payment nation. The idea is to have my monthly payments as high as I can take. If you cut interest rates, I'll get a bigger car. |
We're in a situation where the economy is the most highly leveraged in the post-War period. If the Fed had to raise interest rates, that could bring the whole system down. And it's not clear that holding rates where they are or lowering them will save us from another recession. |
We're not in a recession. We're not going to be in a recession. Recovery is on the horizon. The decks are clear. The economy is in direct drive, |
Well, one could argue that they're in the early process of making that mistake again. Those with some memory would probably rather have the funds rate at 3 percent than 1 percent. |