Dana Johnson
Dana Johnson
Dana Johnsonis an American writer and Associate Professor at the University of Southern California. Honors include the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and being named a nominee for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Her writing has appeared in Callaloo, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere...
fed given improvement job labor lack market reason slow withdraw
There's excruciatingly slow improvement in the labor market and no reason for the Fed to withdraw any of its accommodation, given the lack of job growth.
care caught faster five foster grow half nearly normal time year
They can grow five times faster than normal and by the time they've been in foster care for a year and a half they will nearly have caught up.
behind cycle easy judgement point
The easy part of the tightening cycle is behind us now and so you're at the point where more judgement is required.
basis downward drifting labor market people quite rate reflecting small trend
The unemployment rate on a month-to-month basis bounces around quite a lot. The trend is for a small downward drifting in the unemployment rate, reflecting as much people withdrawing from the labor market as anything else.
compared cushion happening humane job people rather
These are job cuts, but they're happening in a rather humane way compared to what could have occurred. They were going to happen anyway. Now those people have more of a cushion with which to make adjustments in their lives.
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The industrial production data ... was sort of a sober warning about the softness in the industrial sector of our economy.
asked doctor
The doctor asked if I'm ready, ... I said yeah.
although bankers buyers central market viewing
The market has been extraordinarily complacent, viewing central bankers only as buyers although they're also sellers.
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I think it's important to recognize that inflation is where the Fed wants (it) to be. They don't want to overshoot. I think they will pause real soon.
It hurts, but it's really not a devastating blow. At least not yet.
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I think the concern that was motivating the Fed (to lower interest rates ) is that it's going to shift to more Western hemisphere trade partners. I think the risk is it's going to broaden and deepen.
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It was a very disappointing report. It clearly pushes the timing of a Fed tightening further into the future. We're now calling for a Fed rate hike in the fourth quarter of 2004 instead of in August.
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The Fed is more willing to balance risks in favor of growth than it was two years ago. They really don't want to be accused of anti-growth. They want to be seen as anti-inflation, and I don't think in that light they wanted to be seen as moving ahead of inflation reports that have not shown any acceleration.
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The Federal Reserve will be meeting on Sept. 30. It will be an easy decision to leave policy unchanged. There is no sign of accelerating inflation, and there are arguments and evidence that growth is in the process of slowing somewhat.