Diane Swonk Quotes (51 Quotes)


    The Fed will sit on its hands. There's really no reason to do otherwise. The economy's falling into place as the Fed thought -- it's in a soft spot, with some light at the end of the tunnel.

    They're now looking at the demand trade-off on oil prices, not just the inflation trade-off, which will make Fed policy much more complicated. It's a subtle but important change.

    Larry Summers is the economic conscience of Rubin. He is the economic half of that team. Rubin had market smarts and the political savvy Larry Summers was, in many ways, the economic mastermind here.

    (Bush) has got to be even more careful today. He has burned through a lot of political capital. He's got to put someone in who is going to be a slam dunk.

    A limited statement would be more productive because the Fed is trying to deal with psychological issues. They want the focus to be on their action, not their words.


    The conference takes Fed staff and academics out of their ivory tower ... It's the unique mix of those individuals that's the beauty of it.

    There are many who, on a theoretical basis, would argue that now is the time the Fed should begin pulling back because we'll be feeling the bulk of the rate cuts when we already should have started tightening again.

    There's a difference between good growth and bad growth at this stage of the cycle and this is clearly not the kind of inflationary growth that the Fed gets overly concerned about,

    Iraq and corporate governance issues have bogged down capital investment decisions. We're seeing companies that are ready to go they're just waiting for a sign.

    It adds up on paper to look a lot better than what it feels to people, ... not as many people are sharing in the economic gains.

    Spread of violence into Iran. That's what I worry about. That's not in my control, though.

    We weren't running our heaters very much this winter and this would have the effect of slowing down production,

    More and more retailers are feeding on a smaller consumer pie, and many are going away hungry, ... What Wall Street Wants from the Retail Industry.

    There's no reason to tip your hand because they are in a reactive phase.

    When the economy goes back down again, years down the road, will consumer credit be a major problem, like it was in the 1990-91 recession ... Yes, it could come back to haunt us. But right now, it's a macroeconomic plus.

    The Fed needs firm evidence that the tire has hit the ground and that we're really moving forward in a very firm way, ... They're going to wait to see second quarter GDP gross domestic product and more evidence that business investment and equipment spending, especially in IT information technology is firm before they move to start normalizing rates.

    He's certainly opened the door to another rate cut.

    It's a lot better than 1990-91, when we started out from a lower level, ... The bottom line is, consumers are going to be just fine. There's not going to be a bubble, like when we had 3.9 percent unemployment in April 2000. The labor market will tighten enough again, but for the moment it's going to be more balanced.

    He'd like to bring in inflation targeting. (But) he must build consensus to do so and he doesn't have consensus now. I think he's going to make a smooth transition, but it's going to be an evolution in policy change.

    It's all vehicle sales and gas. Chain-store sales were relatively strong during the month, suggesting consumers diverted their vehicle spending to other sectors. We also had a cold snap which prompted early spending on winter wear.

    That doesn't mean that competition is getting any less. It just means that companies have to turn inward to innovate in order to boost profits and customer satisfaction,

    If they move between meetings it's usually a move to shore up confidence.

    If it was going to be one of them, you would have thought they would just move forward.

    That's basically what the statement says 'If the economy's weakness is not due to Iraq, we'll ease. If it is Iraq and things clear up, and we get the economy springing back, we'll leave things unchanged,'

    obviously something that (the Fed) is trying to stretch for, saying, 'Well maybe people aren't trading job security for wages anymore.'

    The Fed will wait to see at least another month's worth of economic data before it makes a decision to ease. They want to see whether or not weak July data were more of an aberration or a trend -- two months will give them more cover to ease further.

    It will be very interesting to see Fed's decision today, which may include them standing pat in terms of no move on interest rates, and there is chance here they will now talk about risks being balanced between recession and recovery,

    We are at a time in the cycle when you don't need to just turn down the flames on the fire, you have a pot that is already boiling. What the Fed is concerned about is that even as you begin to turn down the flames that pot will still boil over.

    This is a very unusual recession in that the consumer did not collapse and incomes are in the black,

    What can the Fed do about WorldCom This is not an interest rate problem. This is not something they should be involved with, ... I'm sorry, Wall Street, but you can't look to the Fed to save you when they don't have the tools to save you on this one.

    Once they get that debt paid off, it's just free cash flow.

    We've got the strongest overall profit performance in 30 years, and these are real profits, not the fake ones we saw in the late 1990s.

    By the end of the year, there will be some builders with some overhang of construction relative to demand, ... Now's the time when you'd hope everybody cools off a bit and moderates their building, but that's not human nature -- and it's not the way for homebuilders to make money in the near term.

    What the Fed told us today is, we don't think we are done yet and we are not sure when we will be done.

    kick back, put up his feet for a bit and not have to carry the burden of keeping the economy going alone.

    Is the pressure on inflation behind us I think not. Inflationary pressures are not going to surge overnight, but they'll creep up.

    We are a wealthy nation that rebuilds and fortifies. Ultimately, New York is going to more than recover the losses that this brought on.

    We were expecting sales to remain in record territory today, not set new records, ... This really underscores the silver lining to clouds abroad.

    It's hard to kill this darn consumer, isn't it Anyone who is losing sleep over the consumer is losing sleep over the wrong thing.

    I think this is clearly the Fed saying 'we're willing to take out an insurance policy, we're not willing to risk recession',

    Given the obvious hardship of having illegal aliens flooding in, we also know they are critical to the functioning of the U.S. economy. To be turning our backs on people who want to work is kind of silly in an environment where you've got tight labor markets and we're getting older and need younger people to work.

    After the fireworks we've seen coming out of Washington on Friday and Monday, I think the Fed would like to be the least bit of news this week.

    As auto sales taper off, we'll see a reallocation of spending. A resolution of the Iraq situation will cause a relief rally and get companies to invest back into the business, ... Also, oil prices will plummet and that typically stimulates real income growth.

    I view the risk as very high that the Fed shifts its bias to tighten (interest rates) sooner than we had forecast. The risk is rising that they will move sooner.

    I think the market is tired of Christmas. We've already seen the Christmas reports. As far as the market is concerned, that's old news.

    The worst-case scenario assumes that a military strike against Iran would occur late in the year.

    The consumer is not about to die on us, but let's face it, it's time for them to give a little slack to the business sector.

    The Fed wants to see whether this July data, this bad economic data, was an aberration, and two months will make it clearer. If they see more instability in financial markets, they will take it lower.

    There's no question that, given the right circumstances, the Fed wouldn't hesitate to spend 175 basis points. But they really have to have a good reason to put an insurance policy out there.

    The question is not whether the consumer is slowing. From the Fed's perspective, it's whether the consumer is slowing down fast enough to keep inflation in check,


    More Diane Swonk Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Business & Commerce - People - Economics - Time - Decision Making - Media & News - Change - Politics - Labor - Evolution - Violence - Silver - Sales - Confidence - Christmas - Light - Capital - Finance - Winter - View All Diane Swonk Quotations

    Related Authors


    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Page 1 of 2 1 2

Authors (by First Name)

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M
N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Other Inspiring Sections