It looks sort of in line with expectations, with some strength — for example a rebound in communications and machinery, but also some disturbing continued weakness in the computer sector.

The Fed doesn’t like to switch policy very quickly. Unless something goes wrong, I think they are going to stop (after the March move) and hold rates there for an extended period.

We might have a lower unemployment rate and a somewhat lower gross domestic product, but it wouldn’t be a huge impact.

Energy is the big wild card. We just don’t know where prices will be. It will be a question of how fast oil refineries and oil pipelines come back.

There is no change for the Fed. They are more focused on the real economy. They are looking for any sign that core inflation is going up.

Common sense says consumers have to stop spending money at some point. But consumers haven’t shown much common sense lately, despite griping about gas prices.

If you’re trying to finance capital spending, you do that off saving.

The bottom line is that we had a very strong quarter of growth.

There is a risk that energy could break out into a bigger inflation problem. We have gotten through Katrina and oil prices have backed off a bit, but there is a risk that if we...

It’s not leaking into the core inflation rate as it did back in the 1970s.

The leading indicators are telling us that we have got a slowdown because of the disruption from the hurricanes, but it is not as dire as the September drop would suggest.

Greenspan is coming to the end of his term and he really wants to get the interest rate increases done before he leaves. He may feel he can’t afford to take a meeting off.

I think they are struggling with how to let markets know the rate hikes are coming to an end. The problem is that anything they say will get over-interpreted by financial markets.

You can live off your income if you lived the way people did in the 1950s.

Other than autos, the rest of consumer spending is doing OK.

This was certainly a successful launch for the 30-year bond.

Usually coming out of a recession, you get a real spurt in productivity, which we got, but now things are settling down to what by historical standards are still very strong gains in productivity.

We’ve got to see what happens in October. There was an initial shock after the attack. Nobody was doing anything.

Even a Chrysler has some imported parts in it and because these Toyotas are a little more expensive, Ford might be charging more.

I don’t see how we can avoid taking a hit and it will be coming right as we move into the Christmas buying season.

After September, it was positive for most of the economy except for tourism. Things like car sales came back very quickly. GM and Ford got really scared about sales so they cut prices.

We want to be richer.

It’s the ’90s all over again. New technology, it’s exciting, people think it’s going to the sky, and people are paying accordingly.

Natural gas is definitely a problem. If we have a mild to normal winter, we are OK. But if we have a colder winter than normal, we just don’t have enough natural gas.

Because they’ve got the employment, the people go there. It’s a virtuous circle. It works in the right direction.

Consumers are getting more cautious.

It’s Newton’s law of currency: Any overvaluation will be followed by undervaluation.

To me the point for the administration in this pick is getting this over with quickly.