Diane Swonk
Diane Swonk
christmas far market seen tired
I think the market is tired of Christmas. We've already seen the Christmas reports. As far as the market is concerned, that's old news.
aftermath effect fallout labor market
In the aftermath of Katrina, the effect on the labor market from the fallout has been limited.
absorb blows economy fed labor market strong
Like what the Fed has suggested, the U.S. economy was more than strong enough to absorb the blows of Katrina. The labor market is still pretty resilient.
catching earnings fed market positive third until willing
The Fed is willing to overshoot the mark. I want to underscore that we're catching up. We're getting the market back in line, but we're not going to see positive earnings from that until we get into the third quarter,
backs critical environment flooding given hardship illegal labor markets obvious older people silly tight turning work younger
Given the obvious hardship of having illegal aliens flooding in, we also know they are critical to the functioning of the U.S. economy. To be turning our backs on people who want to work is kind of silly in an environment where you've got tight labor markets and we're getting older and need younger people to work.
bond market problems
The bond market is just overwhelmed by problems abroad,
adding certainty chaotic
It's all part of adding certainty in a chaotic situation.
balanced chance decision include interest move pat recession risks standing talk terms
It will be very interesting to see Fed's decision today, which may include them standing pat in terms of no move on interest rates, and there is chance here they will now talk about risks being balanced between recession and recovery,
cold consumers early relatively sales snap spending strong suggesting vehicle winter
It's all vehicle sales and gas. Chain-store sales were relatively strong during the month, suggesting consumers diverted their vehicle spending to other sectors. We also had a cold snap which prompted early spending on winter wear.
closely goes latter longer push resembles saw
The longer this goes on ... the more closely it resembles the inflationary push that we saw in the latter part of the 1960s.
falling fed light reason sit soft
The Fed will sit on its hands. There's really no reason to do otherwise. The economy's falling into place as the Fed thought -- it's in a soft spot, with some light at the end of the tunnel.
economic faced kinds rule thrown
He has faced many different kinds of economic environments. He has thrown away any kind of rule of thumb.
activity bit confidence consumer february grain january numbers partial quite recovery strong
I think you have to take the January numbers with a bit of a grain of salt. Consumer confidence is still quite strong and I think we'll see at least a partial recovery in activity in February and through the spring.
economy good
If we are in an economy that is weakening ... that's not good for profits.