One of the things recessions do is uncover weak links. When you're in a strong economy, a bull market, you can paper over a lot of things. When you get under some strain, these things show up.
I don't think we're going to see jobs collapse or disappear. There is a bit of fear in the air with what's been going on with oil prices and the hurricane that there's going to be some kind of collapse. But I think this economy is resilient.
We're at the point in the economic cycle, which comes in every economic cycle, where you move from an acceleration phase to a deceleration phase. We'll continue to grow, but not as fast.
To put this in perspective, a couple of years into recovery, we should be seeing 250,000 to 300,000 new jobs per month. We're not there yet.
As the recovery takes hold, the vulnerability we have surrounding these issues will diminish and they won't be able to impact the overall economy. And then investors will focus on the good news.
Everything is falling into place, with the way our cyclical indicators are behaving. We should see the direction of job growth continue to improve.
There's been a very real structural shift, primarily in manufacturing employment, as a result of outsourcing and earlier capital investment that has increased productivity. They're making employment act differently in this upturn.
It's the 'Red Queen effect' -- you've got to run twice as fast just to stay in place.
The not-too-hot, not-too-cold 'Goldilocks' economy envisaged by many economists could turn out to be a mirage.
The basic message is unambiguous -- you've got inflation.
It will temporarily depress some economic activity, in much the same way a snowstorm could.
The Fed's painfully aware of this, and that's one of the better reasons they try to telegraph what they're doing, so people don't get caught. The institutions that have taken decisions that might put them into harm's way are probably fewer.
The continued weakness in a number of components of the index suggests that it's more than just high oil prices that are ailing the economy.
How much better is the Corvette today than 30 years ago? What is that improvement worth? It's not worth zero.
The current inflation story is a little different story than the type of inflation story you had thirty years ago.
The jobless claims are a leading indicator. We would like to see it lead back down.