Quotes by Alan Ruskin

“It is not a big surprise, some of it is kind of a backlash to this saw-tooth pattern that we have seen in durable goods in the past -- July was weak and August was very strong and now September is relatively weak.”

“For the Fed, I dont think it changes much. Its not weak enough that it would change their measured tightening path.”

“The problem with inflation targeting is that it carries with it a risk of less flexibility at times, and that could be problematical. But it also makes policy less of a black box, so policy is likely to be more transparent.”

“The data will certainly encourage views of a truncated Fed tightening cycle.”

“The data should tend to encourage views that the Fed is correct and that inflation looks to be contained.”

“The economy is generally slowing for a wide variety of reasons -- energy is one, but also the stimulus is wearing off.”

“These cross influences are confused enough that one has to stick with the broader trend that we still view as bond negative.”

“My concern is that whats happened here is that inflation is higher than the Fed anticipated. On top of that, the kind of tightening already imposed by the markets, in terms of lower equities and higher bond yields, is setting up weaker growth in 2005.”

“There should be no doubt that instability in the region should have a profound impact on the long-term risk assessment globally.”

“The labor market has not accelerated to the extent one might expect, judging from past cycles, and we probably wont see evidence of it again in the December numbers.”