Economic news was far from sunny this past week. The recovery continues to progress yet at a snail's pace. But it isn't uncommon to see such modest growth in the aftermath of a mild recession, when pent-up demand for housing and automobiles doesn't have a chance to develop.

Fed officials on the speech circuit in the past few weeks have noted that the current federal funds rate target of 1.75 percent is stimulative for this stage of the business cycle. Market players in the equity or bond market are not expecting the Fed to reduce the funds rate target at Tuesday's FOMC meeting. Equity and bond investors, however, will be feverishly anticipating the statement accompanying the announcement. Incidentally, a majority of economists predict that the next Fed rate change will be an increase, not a decrease, although most don't expect that until mid-<% Response.Write(Year(Now)) %>.