The job picture is as bad as it's been in the past 18 months. I don't think we can find enough special qualifying factors to give us an increase in payrolls.

The last month of the quarter tells you a great deal about how much momentum there was in spending, and it doesn't look to me like there was that much.

All of this, in terms of the FOMC becoming data dependent, comes as no surprise, and the new Fed chairman has an open agenda from which to work.

The dollar's still strong against the Chinese currency and China continues to expand its capacity to flood the world with consumer goods.

I don't think there needs to be much concern about inflation right now. Apart from energy, very few of the broad categories of prices have changed much in their direction.

Generally speaking the November sales pace makes one wonder what is going on with housing starts.

Claims continue hovering slightly above the 300,000 mark, implying strong, steady labor market conditions.

In the past few years, money supply has moved inversely with stock price movements, and that's probably where the weakness has come from.

In today's integrated global economy, given the liquid nature of capital flows, an individual trade balance doesn't mean so much. A lot of the anxiety is overblown.

The Fed is without question, especially in light of the behavior of the stock market, focused with laser-like scrutiny on consumer confidence.