146 Quotes by Ethan Harris

They keep fiddling with the language, and the general tone of the directive keeps getting a little less dovish. Being 'patient' sounds a little less like they're keeping rates on hold than a 'considerable period' -- though you'd need to study a dictionary closely to figure that out.

We needed 20 percent economic growth in the third quarter to get rid of all of the excess capacity in the economy. The Fed is still going to be concerned about disinflation.

Obviously we have a pretty weak economy and this was not unexpected. We knew they were going to have to revise it downward.

There's this alternative scenario where the financial crisis starts to bleed into the economy in a major way,

The retail sales report is a little bit misleading,

More and more of the job losses are in industries that are effectively closing down domestically. This has been a gradual process since the 1950s, but it seems to have accelerated.

Now you are entering a much more uncertain period.

At the national level, the Fed has to worry about the inflation implications of the storm.

As you look down the road, at some point you've got to believe there's a real recovery in capital spending on the way. But I don't see the catalyst anywhere in sight.