Charles Lieberman Fed Quotations

Fundamentally, the economy has not slowed as investors had hoped or the Fed requires. It puts a tightening in August back on the table.

Had this number been very high, the markets would have been quite confident the Fed would raise rates. The real question is whether they are going to pull the trigger on interest rates again, and my answer is no.

We continue to see very rapid economic growth which has been a problem for the Fed all along. We have not seen a material increase in labor costs and that's what I think is going to be the ultimate problem in the economy somewhere down the road, though clearly it's not imminent.

When a doctor administers medicine, he or she makes a judgment about the appropriate dosage in advance. The Fed has to make that judgment, but there's a chance they've already given out the right dosage and just need an appropriate amount of time for it to take effect.

Unemployment is sufficiently high, and the economy has just come out of a relatively mild recession, so inflation pressures are relatively soft right now. It will take a while of solid growth before we have upward pressure on inflation, so the Fed can be a little relaxed about it.

The Fed is not going to be troubled by a small miss (in the CPI). I don't think it's that big an issue, ... They're concerned that a falling stock market could hurt consumers sufficiently to curtail spending. That could be a problem.

The economy is doing a lot better than people recognize and therefore, the Fed may have to hike rates more than they expect. The equity market is fighting the Fed.