Robert Brusca Economy Quotations

I think some of the job growth has been pushed forward. Behind the surface of these very strong reports, there are signs the economy has begun to slow down.

Some of the signals pointing to job market improvement simply did not bear fruit this month. The report makes the economy look even less like it is building a head of steam.

I still have my problems with the economy and how strong it's doing,

It doesn't tell you anything about the economy at this point. It just gives you some idea of the magnitude of the displacement in the affected area.

We continue to see Federal Reserve officials saying they want the economy to grow as fast as it can, but they're the ones who determine where that speed limit is.

While everybody is very happy with the performance of the economy under Greenspan, it's come at quite a price. We have a negative savings rate. The consumer has been out spending his and her income, partly supported by an increase in housing prices, where people had to pull a lot of the equity out of their home. Well they can't do that again.

The fact that food sales outperformed other product categories last month is part of what's going on with the economy and its impact on consumers, ... Also, there was a time when Wal-Mart was eating everyone's lunch. Other stores have been getting their act together and they've reduced the growth gap between them and Wal-Mart.

The tone seems a bit hawkish -- he admits to little in the way of signs of softness in the economy or risks to growth.

That mucked up trade flows, affected our economy and brought an unexpected easing by the Fed. I wouldn't downplay the risks out of China.

This is an economy that is giving contradictory signals. You don't have companies willing to build inventories, which show that they don't have a lot of confidence. Retailers are pumping sales by discounts, but you can't inflate confidence.

It means we sort of dodged another bullet on the inflation front. These kinds of numbers put the Federal Reserve in a difficult box. We don't have inflation, the economy is growing too fast, they are afraid it won't keep up, but it's hard for them to raise rates without any inflation on the doorstep.

The Federal Reserve has talked about the economy being in a soft spot -- well, it's really in a soft spot.

How could we have such a turnaround in job growth and have the Fed find that it doesn't change its assessment of risks in the economy whatsoever?

These are big declines. It shows you how weak the economy is. Prices don't decline like this unless you've got slack demand conditions.