Percent Quotations

We're going to cover about 80 percent of the 20th Century.

We're going to continue to do what's right for the growth of the business. Our pricing strategy is not to maximize margin percentage growth but to maximize buying for our customers, ... As we grow, we'll be able to get better economies of scale, better prices from our suppliers and our third-party sellers. All that should help margins.

We feel that the ECB should take inflation by the scruff of the neck and raise rates by a half percentage point,

We feel that numbers are not as bad as people think as a few high profile names have reported below expectations. Numbers so far have come down from where they were but have still come in about 5% ahead of analysts' forecasts ... We believe that growth rates are still pretty robust at about six percent growth for the year.

We're expecting a pretty tough first half of the year -- tech profits will be up about 10 percent this year compared to 30 percent last year, ... But by the second half of the year, the economy may brighten, earnings comparisons are easier and we could start to see an easier tech tape.

We're expecting a 10 percent increase in the number of customers this year over last year.

The one thing we know for sure is when competition for something increases, the percentage of the market any one business has will decline.

The other thing is you need a good solid work force and 50 percent of us is female, so just play the numbers.

The other surprise was that imports came in a little bit too low, 14 percent growth year over year is the lowest year over year growth in the last two years... I think the fall in imports is a little bit atypical. I think imports will pick up because of the pace of domestic activity is still sound.

The personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price deflator was revised from 0.7 percent annual rate to 1.0. That's still very low, but it was revised upward instead of downward. There is possibly some building inflationary pressure, but it's still very benign.