Consumers are partying like it’s 1999, … They are celebrating their full-employment status and they are spending. The punch bowl is only spiked with 1-1/2 percent inflation, which isn’t anything.

By historical comparison, there?s not an economist on the street that can call housing weak right now. If this is the soft patch, it?s pretty darn good for a soft patch.

We caution investors; one month of stellar job creation does not a trend make. And since the entire Street has diminished economic growth projections for 2005, we have to stick to our guns of slower,...

I don’t think this is worrisome at all. We’re coming off an extremely strong month.

We are going to have a winter of discontent.

Good news is when we get gains of 100,000 or 200,000 — [September’s] number could very easily be revised to negative 57,000, … One month does not a trend make.

I still don’t think the tone has changed, … I don’t hear any hiring going on, and I don’t hear any firings going on.

Looking at where we are right now, I don’t think the Fed raises rates until 2005.

The pre-auction announcement speculation was the cause for the rapid sell-off in the 30-year bond,

By historical comparison, there’s not an economist on the street that can call housing weak right now.

There’s only so much a Fed rate hike can do to thwart an inflation threat that’s predominantly driven by oil prices. Raising the fed funds rate won’t stop people from speculating about higher oil prices,

I’m not at all convinced this recovery we’re having is going to be as smooth as we’ve had in previous recoveries,

I don’t think these high energy prices are going away any time soon. Consumers are pulling back.

The labor market is very healthy. The most important economic indicator for the average person is their job. As long as people are working, they’re earning and that’s offsetting a great deal of the pain...

So we don’t get the gold medal in housing this year ? we have to settle for the bronze. There’s still plenty of demand for housing in the U.S., even with the higher mortgage rates.

That’s five months of sitting on your rear end unemployed, and that doesn’t bode well for spending.

This is not a good report, all things considered.

The Fed may pause … but I think that would be a mistake. With the economy advancing at such a torrid pace, the Fed can afford to err on the side of overdoing it. …...

The Fed is going to move at its gradual, measured pace because we’ve hit an oil-induced soft patch, … Fifty-basis-point hikes are not right when the economy is skittish and market is jittery about oil.

The argument is that Venezuela is not willing or they’re not going to be able to (comply with the cuts). Here it is eight, nine days later and they’re already backing out. We knew it...

We’re more likely to get between 100,000 to 200,000, maybe 250,000 jobs a month in the coming months, and fluctuating — very choppy,

We have not seen any inflation yet, but what we have heard is an inordinate number of price increase announcements in the third or fourth quarter, but they were not supposed to take effect until...

This is Greenspan’s last hurrah, the swan song for the big guy.

The sentiment I get from the Beige Book, along with listening to quarterly earnings conference calls, and just the general tone of my conversations with people who have their fingers on the trigger of hiring,...

Up until now, we haven’t seen any backlash to record prices at the pump from consumers, but now the story is changing. We’ve passed the complaining stage and entered the actionable phase.

We’ve passed the complaining stage and entered the actionable phase.

Ultimately the buck stops with the president. If people are upset about the economy and want to blame someone, that someone is probably going to be the president,

It’s not just an oasis,

This is good news. For all intents and purposes, this is really good data. Some equities should rally on this.

This is Greenspan?s last hurrah. The swan song for the big guy.

What economists see as half full, investors see as half empty.

The industrial production number is the benchmark — other surveys, while they’re good, pale in comparison to the strength this indicator has.

Higher prices are back, which bodes ill for those expecting a quick end to Fed rate hikes. It looks like inflation is going onward and upward in the first quarter.

August isn’t exactly a barnburner for job creation. It didn’t appear as if corporate America flicked on the hiring switch last month. I think there were a lot of problems plaguing big business. So I...

Make no mistake about it. Inflation is building in the pipeline. It is no longer a matter of if, but when, those price pressures will start to affect the general price level.

I think for all intent and purposes, you really have to rule out a Fed rate hike on October 5,

There’s no inflation anywhere to be found in the U.S. economy, and that’s good for bonds. It’s more than an oasis of prosperity, it’s more like Fantasy Island.

I think it’s the beginning of a prolonged slowdown, but not a recession.

Consumers aren’t knocking the cover off the ball. Their confidence isn’t a grand slam, but they aren’t striking out, either.

All of these corporate chieftains are saying new hiring is in the cards, around the corner, down the road — but that doesn’t mean March.

For all intents and purposes the Fed is going to move at a measured pace whether that word is in there or not. And now, the longer end of the yield curve should react more...

I can’t imagine that these energy prices aren’t elevated through the winter. We anticipate even higher prices. Companies don’t want to hire ahead of uncertainty.

By any measure, third-quarter economic growth was quite impressive. It would be even more impressive if it could be sustained in the fourth quarter, but we’re almost certain to lose some momentum.

The problem, and every Fed official is fully aware of this, is that every recession since 1971 has been preceded by two things: higher oil prices and an increasing federal funds rate.

Greenspan will take it away on Wednesday like everyone’s saying here, but he’s only taking it away momentarily, … He’s taking one and he’s done.

I give him an A-plus. Job 1 was, ‘Don’t upset the market,’ and he didn’t do that.

As the economy goes, so, too, goes job creation.

Americans are not going to be happy, but they now face considerably higher energy prices. That’s going to be the norm, not the exception.

I had a low forecast for February simply because we had terrible weather, … Yet, we still managed to have this kind of activity. So this is very encouraging for housing. Had it not been...

This is the guy you want now.