The claims numbers always do strange things at the end of the year. There was some improvement at the turn of the year, but the story is that claims are gravitating back to the 400,000, where they were for quite while. |
The consumer can pop for a spree now and then, but spending at its basic level is pressured by a negative savings rate. |
The consumer still has life. It does temper the overall gain, but we're still going to see the consumer spending this quarter. |
The conundrum is the Fed, and why the it keeps raising rates. |
The extent to which it feeds back to you and me is that banks become less aggressive about taking risk ... and this could curtail economic activity. |
The fact that food sales outperformed other product categories last month is part of what's going on with the economy and its impact on consumers, ... Also, there was a time when Wal-Mart was eating everyone's lunch. Other stores have been getting their act together and they've reduced the growth gap between them and Wal-Mart. |
The Fed has never said this borrowing is a mistake and that this is a problem. |
The Fed is concerned about this, and it has a reason to be concerned. There's no pricing power, and they're watching this very warily. |
The Federal Reserve has talked about the economy being in a soft spot -- well, it's really in a soft spot. |
The Federal Reserve, with the ink barely dry on its statement of intent to move in a measured pace, has begun a new theme that says 'measured' may be too slow. |
The number of Americans killed in Iraq during the peace is [almost] as great as the number killed during the war -- so we have an economic recovery that doesn't look like a recovery, and we have a peace that doesn't look like a peace. |
The president has an atrocious record when it come to job growth. |
The problem of the war was it was so easy to finance, if that is a problem. |
The problem, ... is that the markets have fallen sharply and they've fallen because all these financial shenanigans are coming unraveled. |
The report is still a poor one given what has come before, but not terrible, |