24 Quotes by David Kelly

What's remarkable is how little the statement changed. The one thing that is important is that the Fed has always, over the past few years, tipped its hand. But they have still not indicated that they are close to ending their tightening.

One thing that's clear is that the Fed is determined to still seem balanced. The minutes will reflect a little more inflation concern and a little more concern about the economy but no deviation from the measured pace.

Nothing about what they said today is surprising -- they changed the minimum number of words (from their last statement). We're still waiting for confirmation (of a recovery in) the labor market.

One of the biggest upward revisions was to investment spending on equipment, exactly the area we're worried about, ... That grew marginally, and that's the start of something.

I believe the Fed needs to wean the economy off the morphine drip of low interest rates before it gets hooked.

It generally takes a few months after GDP growth such as we saw in the third quarter before that turns into strong growth in employment.

I think the recovery is too strong to be a jobless recovery. But it is a close call.

We saw companies push up output strongly without increasing labor costs at all. As orders come in, they will have to increase their total employment. Unless economic growth slows very rapidly, the unemployment rate should begin to move down in the next few months.

The reason spending dropped in January was a big fall in auto sales. I don't think this tells us much that's new -- it's consistent with an economy still growing in second or third gear.