Most people I've told about this think it's great. They really want to latch on to a good cause, ... But some of them say, 'Why do you have to hike the Grand Canyon ?'
Most people expect that the Fed will hike short-term rates more than the 10-year (yield) will go up this year.
Most people download using a file-sharing program. As it is, a price hike would just force people to find new ways of getting their music.
Most people think we're in for a couple more rate hikes in the United States. We'd argue that that would make life more difficult for equity markets but so far they seem to be trickling along quite nicely.
Most people at the Fed seem to feel that the national economy is strong enough to absorb the effects of Katrina. That to me seems that you will not see the Fed rate hike derailed.
Most people are still expecting another couple of rate hikes by the Fed. We'd need something like a really bad jobs report on Friday to change those expectations and drive the dollar down much further.
I think that the objective of the interest rate hikes is to keep the economy in the 3-1/2, maybe 3-3/4 range. So the Fed has been saying all along, give us 12 months from when we start to raise rates and we'll get the trajectory down. And I think that's what they've done.
People were expecting the worst and I think the reaction you saw is that it wasn't as Draconian as many had feared. There wasn't any real hard table pounding or anything in the minutes that pointed to a 50-basic point hike at the next meeting.
People will be more likely to feel comfortable that they have been well represented. It's the right time, especially with all the hurricanes, all the rate hike requests.
Phase two of the emissions trading scheme would result in further hikes in energy costs at a time when firms are enduring the highest gas and electricity prices for more than a decade.