"If we all join hands together and buy a new SUV, everything will be OK....Go out and buy something."
-- Robert McTeer, Federal Reserve Governor, February 2, 2001
"Economic fundamentals remain strong [in the United States]...growth prospects remain favorable [in Europe]...market recovery is expected [in Japan] but with downside risks..."
-- G7, Palermo, Italy, February 17, 2001, as reported by John Makin
"... I think the correction process is well underway and that by the end of the year we should ourselves be working back up toward a respectable rate of growth... I think monetary policy is in wonderfully good hands. It really is quite remarkable that we've had such wonderfully public-spirited intelligent people running monetary policy... "
-- Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill, May 21, 2001 (Reuters)
“We think we’re near the end of this ...We see this as a pretty typical inventory correction cycle — we’re worse off than we would be in a regular slowdown but not as bad off as in a recession.”
- Paul Edwards, A.G. Edwards, June 15, 2001
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said Sunday that the country is "on the edge of a golden age of prosperity," describing the current economic slowdown as an "adjustment period...I think we're not doing badly for the kind of correction that we're in right now... It's time for us to make every American into a wealth accumulator, not a creator of an entitlement benefit."
- Associated Press, June 24, 2001
"...I frankly don't think we're still slipping. I think we've been bouncing around at a very low rate of real growth for the better part of the last six months... I think one can find the real threads of hope for a return to a higher level of growth..."
-- Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill, July 22, 2001 (Reuters)
(Senator Gramm): If this is the bust, the boom was sure as hell worth it. You agree with that, right?
(Greenspan): Certainly.
-- Conversation between Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) and FOMC Chairman Greenspan during the semi-annual FOMC testimony, July 23, 2001
"I think our economy has got very strong underpinnings...We've certainly gone through a correction. But there are some signs we're improving. There are some signs ... that there is an anchor on economic growth."
- President Bush, August 24, 2001, Reuters
Where's that rebound???
"I've been thinking it's right around the corner for months now...keep shopping, America.."
-- Robert McTeer, Federal Reserve Governor, September 2, 2001, Dallas Morning News
"They've [consumers] been doing something that's probably irrational from the point of view of the individual consumer because they all need to be saving more: saving for retirement, saving for college and all that. But we'd be in bad trouble if they started doing that rational thing all of a sudden. We're happy that they're spending. We wish that they didn't have to run up a lot of debt to do it. But it's not something we're terribly worried about right now because their assets are high."
-- Robert McTeer, as quoted by Chad Hudson in the Midweek Analysis of Prudent Bear,
September 5, 2001
"I think next year's going to be seeing a return to normal growth, three-plus percent...I think the fundamentals of the U.S. economy are there.."
-- Lawrence Lindsey, White House Economic Adviser, quoted in Reuters, October 7, 2001
"What we dearly want is for Americans to behave like Americans--to do the patriotic thing and go out and spend...we need you...Even more important, what we need is for the business community to stop contemplating its collective navel and get busy investing..."
--William McDonough, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, quoted in the Chicago Tribune, October 12, 2001
"[It is] important to keep this slump or this downturn as short as possible..."
-- John Taylor, Treasury Undersecretary, November 29, 2001, Reuters |
