Retail sales excluding autos and gas held up strongly, while industrial production advanced albeit at a less than expected pace. Both sets of numbers, however, are likely to weaken when the next round of monthly data comes in.

Adding the Games may heat up the economy to the point where it runs up against shortages in materials or labor. The effect may be a higher cost of living across the province, cost over-runs on Games projects and intensifying price and wage pressures in coming years.

There's some debate about whether we're at the point where inflation starts to kick in.

Look for renewed debate on whether rising producer prices will be passed through to consumers in the CPI measure of inflation, ... If so, that may well mean that the Federal Reserve isn't quite as near to the end of its tightening cycle as previously thought.

Even with interest rates going up, housing markets will remain healthy going into 2006.

These two reports continue to suggest that the US economy was on fairly solid ground going into the shock effect of Hurricane Katrina,