Word: bb
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...BB: Fridays are usually bad in a down market like this, because nobody wants to go into the weekend with a stable of losers. But consumer sentiment has been a major concern of Greenspan's for a while, and when good news came traders suddenly got worried that the Fed wouldn't feel as much need to cut interest rates if the confidence numbers were turning around...
...BB: The Fed has to be concerned about finding some way to revive consumer confidence. Consumers have two ways of measuring their wealth: their 401Ks and their houses. If the markets stay flat, and the housing market is sagging - which is what we saw today, along with last week's report that existing home sales were also down - there's a chance that people will just stop spending, and that's the way a recession can last a while...
...BB: Consumers need to see two things: First, that the unemployment rate is stabilized, that they don't necessarily need to fear for their jobs. And that shouldn't be too big of a problem - I don't think unemployment is going to get much higher than 4.5 percent...
...BB: I think you have to look to the third and fourth quarters of this year. That's when all the downsizing and cost-cutting and slashing of excess inventory that companies have been doing this winter and spring should start to pay off. If oil prices come down to the mid-20s, which I think they will, then companies are going to start to return to profitability. They've been doing all the right things in terms of cutting costs, and if the Fed continues to do its role, it's going to start to show up in consumer...
...Before now, my youthful expertise was restricted to BB guns and rifles. At summer camp, I spent weeks perfecting my shot in hopes of eventually reaching the highest level of NRA certification: expert marksman. But today was different. In my hand was a 9mm Glock—the kind you see on “Magnum PI” and in The Matrix—and as I was unloading a clip of bullets into a target approximately 15 yards away, I realized that I held the power of life and death in my hands. To have so much control...