We certainly don't need a reduction in rates and there are signals, like retail and trade, that show us the economy is going to rebound in the first part of the year.

We are not getting our fair share of Chinese trade and we want more of it,

We have sorely neglected our trade relationships over the years with the new and emerging markets - the Chinas and Indias,

I think offensively we're pretty good right now. Defensively, we're pretty good in the secondary and that's allowed us to do enough to keep us in the ballgames.

The US financial position is rapidly deteriorating, due mainly to America's persistent and growing trade deficit. US ambitions to run the world, in other words, are heavily mortgaged. Like any debtor who borrows more year after year with no plausible way to reverse the trend, a nation sinking deeper into debt enters into an adverse power relationship with its creditors -- greater and greater dependency.

That's not coming from us; I certainly haven't pushed it. Nobody's presented me with a case (for a trade). That's not something I think we need to do.