152 Quotes by Mark Vitner

The improvement in the unemployment rate has been very steady, which looks very believable. It points to a probable undercount in (payroll) employment.

We haven't seen that much improvement in employment of hourly workers because the job market for lower-skill workers still has a lot of slack in it. But if you look at skilled workers, it's a much different picture. We're starting to see some real shortages in some sectors.

The economy should bounce back solidly in the first quarter.

We hope it will be the case that tax cuts will bridge the gap until hiring picks up, but that seems like a pretty precarious plan. But it's the only plan we've got.

The economy seems to be getting over the bursting of the tech bubble. It finally appears that the Triangle is firing on all cylinders.

While core finished goods are still relatively tame, there are signs that price increases are accelerating further back in the production pipeline, ... Typically the Fed continues tightening until this series tops out. But with prices up only modestly, they will likely continue to make only modest adjustments.

The economy may stagnate but it's not going to inflate. The core rate of inflation probably peaked in March.

Yesterday there was a little bit of a fear that maybe the housing market is not slowing down much and that the Fed has to do a little bit more, and today it takes some of that fear back out. They are really close to being done.

The chance of a rate hike is almost nonexistent. They've never moved this close to the election, and I don't think there's any need to. There's really no denying the economy is growing less than it did in the mid-'99 to mid-2000 period.