Kevin Logan Quotations

The only reason we wouldn't be able to make it (to the benefit concert) is if Pete got listed and we needed to leave. As soon as they list him then we need to get him down immediately.

Seven percent is not an unreasonable estimate for GDP growth. Retail sales were strong, especially with the revisions. Consumer spending possibly grew 12 percent at an annual rate. That's really charging right along.

Seven percent is not an unreasonable estimate for GDP growth, ... Retail sales were strong, especially with the revisions. Consumer spending possibly grew 12 percent at an annual rate. That's really charging right along.

We have the FOMC next week where a rate hike is a foregone conclusion. Today's data didn't change that,

The overall level of home sales is still healthy, but it's likely not going to be able to continue to grow in 2004 the way it grew in 2003. It may be topping out, and sales will move sideways -- but that's not a bad thing, given the high level of sales.

The real story here is the (slower) growth of consumption in the quarter.

This seems to have more impact on people's expectations than current conditions. What changed was the price of gasoline, and people know that that can eventually lead to some kind of slowdown.

This shows the general level of apprehension gripping consumers now. Though it's not a reliable guide to what consumers will do, it does hint that spending will grow at a slower pace.

What it suggests is that the pace of growth, although pretty robust, is likely to slow a bit going forward.

The stimulus to spending will probably be small because a lot of people that get dividends are already well-off, and any additional retained income they'll have may not change their spending patterns much -- they may just save more.

Prices played a big role here. A lot of the increase was due to higher energy prices, particularly for oil.

Prior to the war, the stock market was at its lowest because people were pricing in a more intense military conflict, which hasn't happened, ... The market has decided that these events weren't nearly as damaging as they might have been to the global economy.

So this is more up to date as far as the situation in the housing market is concerned. It is a better indication that housing sales are beginning to slow.

The uptrend seen for the past year or so in housing seems to be intact.

They've changed their risk assessment; that's a subtle shift, but it is a shift. If you believe that inflation pressures will mount, they're closer to, rather than further from, a policy move.

You can't look at these numbers and say things are going to be booming going forward.

There's a little bit of relief that the Fed wasn't more aggressive.

They haven't changed (their bias). The weakness in corporate profits is a problem, and investment continues to decline.

It's a very thin market. People don't want to take any risk because of the lack of liquidity.

It's a very thin market, ... People don't want to take any risk because of the lack of liquidity.

It's going to bother consumers. When you look at consumer confidence over time, the main things that affect it are employment and income; but there are other events that can affect confidence, if only temporarily, and war is clearly one of them.

It (the fourth quarter GDP report) has no influence on next week's decision, so it really depends on what they learn about the economy over the next couple of months.

For the last few months or so sales seem to have flattened out. This may be the beginning of a sideways movement. The rise in short-term interest rates and higher prices tend to slow down the turnover of houses.

You can only run down inventory for so long.

This is more of a contemporaneous indicator -- if business picks up and firms find they need to stock more inventory, we will see lending pick up.

The housing market is likely to do less well, but that happens as resources are shifting back to areas where there's more remuneration -- such as manufacturing and services. That's how the system works -- rising rates are a reflection of how the economy is going to do.

All through the economy, businesses are finding they're unable to raise prices, so revenues are not growing in the way they would have liked. Without revenue growth, they're not going to grow profits. The only way to grow profits then is to cut costs, and the only way to do that is to not hire workers.

The jobless claims were lower because the weather was good.