Anthony Chan Consumer Quotations

If you have productivity growing faster than the economy, how can you expect demand for labor to be all that strong? I'm still hopeful that unemployment won't go much higher than 6.2 percent or 6.3 percent, but where we'll peak is not as important as when we turn around. If we sort of linger at 6.2 percent, that will put some downward pressure on consumer spending.

There's no question unemployment is what drives consumer confidence, which in turn drives consumer spending. We have to be realistic and accept the notion that, as we enter the first quarter and December, these sales are going to get a bit weaker. We're still in a recession.

There's no question that what's happening in the stock market is going to hurt consumer spending. The only thing helping us is the performance of housing.

The bottom line is that consumers experienced a soft patch in the first quarter and they appear to be emerging from it,

I think the risk is the downside, not the upside, ... I think the markets are fairly nervous about the prospects for growth. They're going to be dissecting the number. If we have slower than expected consumer spending and stronger than expected inventory growth, that's not going to bode well for the next quarter or so.

Everyone knows that consumers cannot carry the economy indefinitely on their own, and this report provides some hope that the long-awaited capital spending recovery may not be too far off.

Outside of energy, the consumer is fine. That's why growth this year will be weaker than last year, and it will be weaker next year than this year.

Our analysis suggests the pace of consumer spending is likely to slow in the near-term future,

To the extent that consumer sentiment reacts to movements in the unemployment rate rather than the meager increase in non-farm payrolls, we have to take this ... report as delivering good news to the troops.

Next week's producer price index or consumer price index could tip the Fed in favor of a June hike if they're on the upside.

Based on these trends, it is not too difficult to conclude that the average consumer is probably a bit overextended from a credit standpoint,

Given that we import more than 50 percent of our oil consumption from abroad, it is clear that as these prices rise, we are essentially transferring net wealth from U.S. consumers to oil producers that are mostly located overseas.

The bottom line is, the labor market is going to continue to show further deterioration, not because it's getting worse, but because of mechanics. As the unemployment rate gets higher, the consumer is going to consider that.

Consumers at this juncture are fighting the forces of the economic slowdown with patriotism, ... As economic conditions continue to deteriorate, this challenge will become greater.

Consumers at this juncture are fighting the forces of economic slowdown with patriotism. As economic conditions continue to deteriorate, this challenge will become greater.

Consumers are stressed. Consumers are at the crossroads.

Consumer confidence warned us already that this would be mild recession,

We're coming off 6 percent consumer spending growth in the fourth quarter, and that's going to moderate. It's not going to collapse, but see we spending in the neighborhood of 2 to 3 percent for the rest of the year.

That report certainly reveals the recession is not over. The gains we had in September are not sustainable and illustrate why the central bank has to continue to lower rates. At this juncture, the easing of rates basically is serving as a consumer confidence booster.

The market doesn't want to see too much exuberance on the part of consumers in order to keep the central bank at bay.

Lower energy prices will cushion the blow to the economy from the higher prices so far. Psychologically, it helps the consumer and that means the hit to the economy will not be as great as feared earlier.

It appears as though the level of job security is rising and that's a very encouraging thing to consumers, ... Consumers are spending more on general merchandise as well as on eating out. People don't go out to restaurants a lot if they're not feeling good about their economic situation.

The retail sales figures clearly prove that betting against the consumer is a sucker's bet. Not surprisingly, the ex-auto figure on retail sales tears down the argument that consumers are only buying cars and houses.

These numbers confirm the notion that consumer spending, which has been so resilient, is under some threat. With investor sentiment so weak and the labor market continuing to deteriorate, consumer confidence had only one way to go -- lower.

The fact that U.S. officials cannot rule out further attacks will keep consumers here and abroad in a deeply uncertain state.

Weaker consumer confidence threatens to reverse the course of the recovery. That's why policy makers will be so cautious. They don't really have to worry about the economy's fundamentals, but they do have to worry about confidence.

The consumer credit-to-disposable income ratio is much higher than it was in the '50s, so you can't argue that there is as much excess capacity on the borrowing side as there was in the '50s,

This terrible tragedy is certain to severely dampen consumer confidence and hence have the possibility of shutting down the consumer.

We still have a labor market that's deteriorating, and today's numbers epitomize that. We're going to continue to see deterioration, which will pose serious challenges to consumer confidence and keep the economy soft for another quarter or two.

When the economy is creating 200,000 new jobs a month, we can tolerate $65 to $70 a barrel oil. It masks the impact on consumer confidence.

You've got to ask yourself, will we have another 100-to-150 basis-point decline in mortgage rates? ... I would say that's a stretch, so it's not going to be a reliable source of funds for consumers -- we'll need to see the economy turning around.

The resilient consumer and an attempt by businesses to jump-start and keep the economy going -- the combination of those two forces gave us a bounce-back in economic activity.

The resiliency of the consumer is very impressive in the wake of so many terror warnings. One cautionary note is that, moving forward, these numbers may soften, as those warnings are still coming.

The CPI report continues to be encouraging. These numbers are stimulating consumer spending by giving consumers more spending power. At the same time, lower inflation will also encourage the central bank to do whatever they need to do.

The CPI report continues to be encouraging, ... These numbers are stimulating consumer spending by giving consumers more spending power. At the same time, lower inflation will also encourage the central bank to do whatever they need to do.

This provides a big shot in the arm to the notion that geopolitical concerns were holding back the economy. Otherwise we wouldn't have seen such a big pop. This probably exaggerates how excited consumers will be after all is said and done, but it gets the direction right.

We will see a moderation ? but not a collapse ? in consumer spending,

Our own studies have shown that consumers tend to switch over to non-store outlets in times of higher energy costs .

As the equity markets react positively to this change, we get a bit of a positive wealth effect which in turn should induce higher consumer spending.

All the focus is on the core number. The Fed said yesterday that energy has not worked its way down to core consumer prices.

Betting against the U.S. consumer is always a losing bet.

I remain more confident that the consumer will take great comfort in knowing that our government is truly taking care of business.