I think overall it's quite a good legacy and the performance of the economy has been quite good.

The performance of the index suggests that Illinois avoided the slowdown of the national economy that occurred in the last quarter of 2005.

In this case it seems very obvious that an airport has an economic impact and you would not need a report. It's hard to see what a report like this establishes that isn't already obvious.

It's true that many of us have been concerned that foreigners will grow tired of financing these ever larger trade deficits, and so far there hasn't been much sign of that. But there are plenty of reasons to be concerned. We know (the trade deficit) means we're borrowing against the future, and that our children will have lower standards of living than they would otherwise. And just because a 'hard landing' hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't.

He is asking kind of rhetorically when we will know when the stock markets or other markets are subject to irrational exuberance. Now, everyone pretty quickly figured out, or assumed that he was really talking about the US and I think he was concerned that the stock market was getting too high and in retrospect that was only the very beginning of the bubble.

By most indicators, there were two recessions both pretty mild and pretty strong growth in most of the rest of the time. I think he deserves a grade for monetary policy.