I think anybody in the Fed chief position realizes that the job is not about proving credentials. It’s about doing what’s right for the economy,

The overall business-spending picture looks grim because airlines are not buying aircraft and power-generating firms are not buying turbines. Aside from those things, there’s a broad-based acceleration going on — spending on almost every category...

It’s setting up for a better performance by the consumer.

When you’re an economist trained in conceptual stuff, you tend to be less intuitive. You fall back on this conceptual framework that the profession has invested a lot of time in.

The squeeze on consumers is building. Retailers and other folks who deal with the customer are going to feel the customer’s pain this fall and Christmas season. We’ll be going through a short period of...

We’re seeing it already. If you look at Wal-Mart’s numbers and strip out the effect of grocery-store sales, there are signs of stress behind the scenes there. What many of us are concluding here is...

The extraordinary events of the time make a person. He’ll be bigger than life because of that.

It’s reasonable for investors to be concerned with inflation, given six months ago we were talking about deflation. What we’re seeing is the purchasing managers are telling us that the costs of some materials are...

Two things every American knows: the price at the gas pump and their house story. We all sense there is a shift in the market . . . from a seller’s market to a buyer’s...

The only really new proposal in the [2003] initiative was the proposal to lower the tax on dividend income and capital gains, and it costs something like $20 billion to $25 billion a year, which...

The labor force is very flexible. If wages go up, it may suck all these workers back in.

I think he’ll leave it [the targets] at the door. The real world is more unpredictable and uncertain than the idealized world that academics push for.

the long-run budget impact, despite all the screaming and hand-wringing about this…is really very small, very modest.

This report just puts together all the news that people had been looking at for the last several weeks. The Fed is going to do what it takes because they fear that maybe growth in...

Central banks having lived through that era where inflation went up … are not inclined to make excuses if inflation goes up [again].

I saw in Greenspan somebody who thinks differently about the world than I did. Over time, I watched this process and (realized) that’s what gave Greenspan such an edge. The real edge he had is...

Consumer spending grew almost 4 percent in the spring quarter, before the tax stimulus package. In the third quarter it looks like consumer spending is going to be up 6 percent or so.

They are not committing anybody to a March rate hike.

My guess is there will be a bigger stimulus package in the months ahead — more than $50 billion — in response to frustration they can’t get the economy moving faster.

This sounds like a good idea. It does make sense in much of the world.

When the economy recovers, the last place you are going to see it is in the job numbers.

The report is moderate — it is not terrible. There is nothing wrong with the economy. What it confirms is that the economy is not out of control.

There is a way they come to a conclusion, and it is your job to not constantly be picking fights with it,

I really think the economic issue is going to play well for the President because we’re getting the kind of growth [that will create jobs].

The economic loss from the one-day demonstration may not be as big as the realization that (illegal immigrants make up) an important part of the economy. It’s probably a small number only because it’s a...

For every dollar that is coming in is a job going out.

Most of the (economic) numbers have been decent, but people just can’t have a positive view on the economic trends til they can see the other side of these Middle East developments.

The consumer is slowing down gradually, so anybody dealing with a customer is going to find that it’s a lot more competitive.

After doing the basics, government should get out of the way and let the city develop in a natural and organic way,

It’ll end up being a pretty significant hit. It’s easy to forget that these natural disasters destroy wealth. … You can’t make that up.

Inflation springs from how intensely resources are used. There is an enormous amount of unused capacity sitting out there, and it takes a lot of growth to absorb that.

I get the feeling that the economy was really wanting to move ahead more quickly last year, then hit a bunch of speed bumps. I get the feeling companies are ready to start building their...

The thought of oil as a tax doesn’t sit right with me. It may be a tax on consumers but it’s a plus for producers, … If you follow the money, my loss is someone...

The alternative [to a stimulus package] could be worse. If the economy flounders, then there’s a loss of revenue, worsening the budget situation — it could even be worse than the measures you take in...

This is adding to the evidence that the economy is going to pick up and I think that we’re going to keep seeing a better job picture.

Skeptics will point to other waves of innovations in the past, but things are happening at lightning speed here. Two years ago no one knew what ‘dot com’ was.

I don’t worry about new home sales,

These long-run worries, there’s an element of truth to them, but I think frankly the fears are exaggerated.

the tax program was designed to provide greater proportional relief for those who earn less income than for those who earn more.

The fact that [Greenspan] is an intellectual leader will generate a lot of chatter … The fact that the Fed chairman’s highlighting it means it’s got to be important.

The toys are there. Everyone has access to the same technology.

Usually economists are figuring things out after the fact, especially the Fed chairman.

Bankruptcy has a negative connotation to many people, but it’s an important part of the streamlining of America. For companies that have gotten themselves down a dead-end alley, it’s a way to back up and...

I think they’ll just do 50 (basis points), and leave in their statement it open-ended because the market is already anticipating a fair amount more easing by the Fed anyway, … We’ll hear more in...

If we get another jobs report as weak as this, there’s no way the Fed will hike in September.

We won’t know what the trend is until we have several months behind us.

It’s really picking up half of labor pay.

This is a view of the economy as we knew it; the world has changed a bit (since then). It’s highly likely the Fed will pause for a while.