Diane Swonk Time Quotations

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.

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.

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.

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.