“The easing the Fed has already done has had a focused and limited effect, mainly on sales of homes and automobiles. Its not clear another rate cut will have much effect. I think fiscal easing is more effective at this point; it more directly puts money in peoples pocketbooks.”
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“Trade is a drag (on growth) and that tends to hit manufacturing harder than the rest of the economy.”
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“Clearly they think the basis for a recovery is still quite fragile. Theyre probably still thinking in terms of one more step of easing. [Wednesdays] numbers wont greatly change the calculus.”
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“This is a confirmation that weather probably was a factor holding up activity [in November], but underneath the surface, the setback in December isnt even what it looks like. What Im calling attention to specifically is the fact that single-family starts actually rose about 3.6 percent, while all the setback was in multi-family units.”
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“It would be minimal,”
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“Is the market concerned about it? Yes. Is it a significant concern? I doubt it.”
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“The really surprising thing is the lack of inflation given this kind of growth.”
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“In our view, the financial markets are much too complacent about what a decision to keep tightening means at this juncture.”
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“If under these circumstances the F.O.M.C. is prepared to keep going, then this means that the committee is more worried about the longer-term risk of higher inflation than the shorter-term risk of a collapse in growth.”
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“We had expected an upward revision in the second-quarter G.D.P. estimate on the basis of other recently released data, ... but trade kind of goes in the opposite direction.”
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