The steadiness of these relatively benign gains suggests that there is no imminent threat of runaway inflation.

You're going to see very soft numbers for employment and significant ripple effects from housing.

Greenspan's comments ... [seemed] to suggest that the risks are weighted toward continued weakness in the economy, but these numbers raise questions about that conclusion. Still, I'm not certain the Fed governors would be willing to disagree with their boss.

The main concern is jobs -- jobs, job, jobs. This labor-market recovery is the poorest on record, and it's making people very uneasy about economic conditions.

This will probably just be a temporary disruption of activity. My guess is that, by Monday, everything should be back to normal. If things are not coming around by Monday, then we will have to worry about it.