Delos Smith Quotations

Probably Asia's diminishing a little bit. But I don't think that this suggests any kind of bad time or recession coming.

You do have a defensive consumer. If the consumer is very nervous and uncertain about what is going to be happening, you don't know how they're going to react.

The whole key is whether or not (a war) ends quickly.

As long as suspense lingers, you will have a longer CNN effect. That's not what you want -- mood is very important for the retail world.

People are seeing we're not getting job growth, even though there have been a lot of promises of it. That's the key; for people to be satisfied, you have to have job growth.

The PPI is just perfect. This is just what we wanted.

The uncertainty is there. It's dissipated, but it's just below the surface and can be rekindled. It plays a part in an economy full of very nervous people.

You want the consumer buoyant. Most consumers are not current-events oriented. When you get everybody involved in current events, when they usually are not, then people are not going to go out and buy things just for pleasure of it.

You don't want people to be cautious if you want them to buy. You want them relaxed and saying their troubles are behind them. This (employment) report doesn't suggest that.

There are absolutely no price pressures in our system.