The expectation was that the economy was going to get better and wages were going to rise and employment was going to increase. But you have the ingredients for a fundamentally different economic picture - one that's not so promising.

While there are concerns about the slowdown in the U.S. economy, what's keeping investors optimistic is the expectation that the Fed is going to ease on interest-rate hikes. That's going to provide support for share prices.

This really underscores that just because there's a booming housing market, it doesn't translate into strong economic growth. It suggests that consumption spending has a built-in speed limit to it. You just can't expect to grow very fast.

It certainly disrupted economic life in New York City; there's no doubt about that. But on the business side, I think a lot of it will be made up eventually, some of it right away and some of it more spread out.

We've been borrowing our way out of the recession, and nothing else has kicked in to take over.

Our expectation is that house price growth will remain firmly in low single digits in 2006 as the economy recovers.