In the minds of economy watchers, it raises a bit of a cause for concern.

Our imports increase as long as the economy grows. But there's certainly a concern that our exports are down despite the fact that Asian and European economies have begun to rebound. Maintaining the high deficit is dangerous because that means a huge debt, and if our creditors lose confidence in the U.S. economy and begin selling dollars, which drives down the value of the currency, that could spark a serious inflation threat.

My own concern is does the consumer give out and drag down the economy in 2006? The corporate sector is well into a recovery, but the consumer never had a recession.

Yields will probably edge lower as a slowdown in the U.S. economy may fuel concern about Japanese exporters.

It's just another source of concern as to the strength of the Connecticut economy. The state has been slow to recover the jobs that were lost during the downturn.

It doesn't concern me that they might have check lists to follow. I've seen the ones that have been proposed by the county commissioners, and it seemed to me reasonable that their lawyers would lay that kind of information out for them like that. I see it as a reasonable method to make sure they comply with the law.