Anthony Chan Panic Quotations

With a fall in the yearly rise in average hourly earnings, both investors and policy-makers can avoid pushing the panic button for a little while longer. In other words, while a (May interest rate hike) remains all but assured, this report did little to nail further tightening beyond this stage.

The report is certainly encouraging. It says there's no urgency to panic about inflation. But that's not the same as saying there's justification for a pause. This is all pre-Katrina. There's enough pipeline pressures out there to say that a pause is not a slam dunk.

By telling us that the risks are more heavily weighed towards weakness while simultaneously stating that they expect an economic recovery within the next several calendar quarters, they are revealing that they remain willing to act if they need to while also reassuring financial markets that there is no need for panic over the near term.