“All this mayhem is very similar to what we have seen in Latin America and in Asia in recent decades. It is driven initially by inflation. This is what China must act to contain. So far, it has not. So the odds of a hard landing remain high.”
“This is more a case of investors pouring money into the Japanese economy than a case of investors scooping money out of the U.S. economy, ... The dollar is weak against the yen, but strong against almost all other currencies, which suggests to me that it's speculative money flowing into Japan.”
“I certainly don't see this as the beginning of the end for the U.S. dollar and I don't see this as the beginning of the beginning for the Japanese economy, either. A stronger yen is going to slow the Japanese economy down and a weaker dollar isn't going to have an enormous impact on the U.S., so it's not a major concern at the moment.”
“It's not so much a matter of if, but when rates will have to rise. There's a distinct possibility that if we see more evidence of strong growth, the Fed will move sooner rather than later.”
“The perception is that rates are going up, and people are lining up to buy homes because of that. It's not a matter of if, but when the Fed raises interest rates, and that's going to have some effect on spending patterns.”
