Once an economy starts to bottom out and grow slowly, it starts to suck into the real economy all of the capital which was driving up asset prices before.

They're moving to a managed float, which means they are going to allow fundamentals drive the currency where it will but they'll try to smooth out volatility.

It can't go on forever, and I think a lot of the euphoria of what will happen to business in Hong Kong is now in the price. What's not in the price are many of the risks of becoming a part of China.

The best you can say is that the German economy remains in dire straits and under duress and as far as what it means for policy... it's a beacon call to the ECB to cut rates,

I don't think they'll refer to Katrina in terms of its
direct impact on the Canadian economy, but perhaps its impact
on higher oil,

The pickup in imports is in line with the sense we had that the slowdown in the U.S. economy is close to its bottom. To some extent, last month's trade balance seemed surprisingly narrow, and this number is more in line with our basic view of the economy. We continue to see a U.S. economy that is growing slowly, but definitely growing.