Mark Zandi Financial Quotations

if the financial markets were reeling and the images from the Gulf were getting worse instead of better, if energy prices were rising instead of falling. But given the economic data and financial markets, there's no reason to make a symbolic move.

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

The Fed chair doesn't matter a lot to the average person in normal times. He matters an awful lot when things aren't going well -- when the financial markets freeze, or there's a 9/11 or Y2K or Iraq war. When people lose confidence, the Fed chairman is vital to restoring confidence and ensuring functioning financial markets and economy.

It means that they're going to be under a lot of financial pressure in the years ahead. And that's going to put pressure on the entire economy and on the political process.

Too-easy credit and millions of bad loans made during the U.S. housing bubble paved the way for the financial calamity and Great Recession that followed. Today, by contrast, credit is too tight. Mortgage loans are particularly hard to get, creating a problem for the housing market and the broader economy.

The principal linkages between Japan and the U.S. global economies are trade, financial markets, and commodity markets.