Now, when Federal Reserve officials say that, what they re telling us is that unless growth slows right now, they were going to raise interest rates. Well, now they re not going to raise interest rates because there is a slowdown in growth that is coming that does not have to be inducted by the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. Instead, it s likely that interest rates are going to be going down from this point forward. So we re going to get a moderation in U.S. economic growth, but if the economy hadn t moderated on its own, which now I think it will do, the Federal Reserve would have made it moderate by raising interest rates, which would have been a lot more painful for us at least than the way that it s going to happen right now. Bruce, I m alarmist, I think you re complacent.
Economies slowing down can throw a lot out of sync.
The idea that we re going to talk this tight rope with just enough growth to keep earnings up and the stock market, which I believe is a real lynchpin behind the consumer, who is the real engine of this expansion, I think is hoping for something which, while not impossible, is going to take quite a degree of good luck. And you maybe have a bigger rabbit s foot than I do. I don t know. We ve got the lowest inflation rate in 32 years. Of course not.