John Shin Quotations

We feel that such a possibility is still a long way off, but it is a development that bears watching.

Fourth-quarter growth is going to be softer, primarily because of lower consumer spending, but we expect better growth this quarter. A major part of it is the sharp drop in auto sales, and we wouldn't expect to see that again.

From an economic perspective, it tells us that we are still having a fairly solid growth in both manufacturing and the overall outlook in the near term.

It is difficult to argue that there is a bubble on a national level since it more of a coastal story, such as California and Florida. There has also been a reduction in speculative buying.

Most of the market is looking at Rita.

While we still expect the housing market to cool gradually -- and the data over the past couple of quarters has been consistent with that view -- the February existing home sales number shows the considerable strength that is still in the residential sector.

We continue to expect that the Fed will keep its hawkish tone and hike on Sept. 20, in response to inflation pressures,

We do think you're going to see a drop off in consumer spending in coming months. Part of the reason is workers are experiencing pain in their take-home pay. You're still seeing other areas of the economy kicking in. These will offset some of the negatives from lower consumer spending.

Traders were really preparing for the worst. I think the reading is very much a cause for relief.

The data are consistent with very gradual cooling in the housing market.

This will get people thinking a little bit more about the inflation risks the Fed has been talking about.

When you look at the details on the positive revision, it's a fairly robust figure. The consumer is continuing to drive a lot of the growth that we're expecting in the first quarter.

There is still significantly stronger growth in the U.S. relative to the rest of the world. That's been the dominant factor in terms of continued large trade deficits and that's not going to change much this year.

There will be some bigger fears about whether the bill for years and years of trade deficits is finally coming due. The outlook is for continued, big current-account deficits.

This is stronger than expected, the highest since spring of last year. But it's less important since it doesn't show anything about the impact of Katrina and everyone's focused on Katrina right now.

This doesn't do anything to change the expectation for payrolls tomorrow, even though it is eye-catching that claims fell below 300,000.

It really does reflect the enormous amount of coverage of the Katrina disaster.

It's pretty funny how quickly sentiment can swing, but I think it's too soon for the Fed to pause (in raising rates). This morning's number keeps the Fed on track continuing 25 basis points (quarter-point) hikes.

Inflation costs have been pretty moderate, but we are expecting wage pressure to kick in by the end of the year.

The index is noisy on a week-to-week basis, but it is painting a broad picture of a cooling housing market.

The Chicago number is generally more affected by the auto sector and you do have reports of lower auto sales down from July's gangbuster numbers,