Mark Zandi Quotes

"The Port of New Orleans alone imports 250,000 tons of coffee every year."

"Christmas sales are shaping up to be OK."

"It's similar to asking a big part of the labor force to leave. In today's economy where the job market is at capacity, asking people to leave means the economy will not grow as fast. In fact, there could be a very difficult adjustment over the first three to four years when this process is in full swing."

"Consumer spending growth will moderate, but it won't impede the current pace of economic expansion."

"This should be a year where the tech market stabilizes but I don't see job growth until 2004."

"The job losses over the past three years have been across a wide range of industries and from coast to coast. And if you've lost your job, in all likelihood you will remain unemployed for longer than in any period since the Great Depression."

"Greenspan should weigh against asset markets in the good times -- just as he works to support them in the difficult times. He's been one-sided in his policies,"

"A bunch of problems that we have ahead of us are largely because of these tax cuts. They are very costly and will contribute significantly to budget deficits in the future."

"Of the 2.7 million jobs lost since employment's peak, roughly a third have been lost to overseas competition, and most if not all of those jobs are not coming back, ... And that trend is going to continue."

"Housing is a fault line in the economy that Greenspan is indeed worried about, but he doesn't think a housing (slowdown) will undermine the expansion."

"Trade is far and away the largest weight on the U.S. economy at present. This is a risky time."

"The economy hit a pothole in the fourth quarter."

"We may see energy prices level off."

"The surge in energy prices we have seen to date will be partially passed through to consumers."

"In the near term, it's a plus ... a steady source of jobs and income. In the longer term, it's an increasing amount of economic resources going to a part of the economy that may not enhance underlying productivity."

"As the memory of the tech bust fades, we seem to be getting better and better job growth."

"If revenue growth does not start to pick up that would squeeze profit margins."

"Part of the problem that all of tech is having with respect to jobs is they significantly over-hired during the boom times and to some degree the past few years has been payback for overaggressive hiring. But I think that process is largely over and we should see slightly better job growth in tech by this time next year."

"At best, people should prepare for no pay increase and no bonus, something they have been getting a lot of. At worst, they should be thinking they may need to change occupations."

"It would undermine the housing market, and could quickly result in credit problems that would affect the entire (American) financial system."