Mark Vitner
Mark Vitner
again bursting companies economy economy-and-economics finally growing market moved overall past stock tech year
Overall this year the economy moved past the bursting of the stock market bubble. Tech companies finally started growing again and that's really benefited the Triangle.
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I think Ferguson might be the best vice chairman we've ever had.
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I truly believe that they would like to stop at 5 percent, but if we get a really strong number (for economic growth) in the first quarter it may be hard to do that.
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The Fed has to conduct a bit of a high wire act. If rates were to rise quickly that would put part of the economic expansion at risk, particularly residential construction and commercial development.
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It confirms that this recession in 2001 was not particularly mild or as short as some folks had thought, ... We were expecting at least two negative quarters, and the fact we had three is a little bit of a surprise. That helps explain why we're having so much difficulty generating some positive momentum right now. The economy was weaker than we had thought.
believe continue deflation fairly goods odds outright pricing producers remain
While goods producers continue to have little to no pricing power, we still believe the odds of outright deflation remain fairly low.
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I don't know if the gas prices and interest rates will knock consumer confidence down in coming months, ... I think they're more likely to hold it where it is now, which is good, but not great.
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Many of these changes are long overdue and will bring the pension system in line with today's work force.
behind increases wage wait
If you wait for the wage increases to show up in the report, they're behind the curve.
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The impact of stronger job growth more than overcomes the impact of higher mortgage rates. It doesn't mean we'll have a month like March every month. But home sales should remain strong even with mortgage rates about a percentage point above the low point.
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You can't get a strong economy if everybody's against business. It's awfully hard to create jobs if everybody's anti-business.
care existing focus mediocre opening overall pie retailers sales securities slice steal stores successful
They're only mediocre if you're a securities analyst, not if you're a real person, ... The successful retailers are opening stores like mad. That may steal sales from existing stores of their own as well as other retailers. But the overall pie is growing. I'm an economist; I focus on the pie, I don't care how they slice it.