The Week in Words: At-risk boomers, haphazard service, oil-driven spending

"The situation is extremely serious because baby boomers have not saved very effectively for retirement and are still retiring too early."

- Olivia Mitchell, director
of the Boettner Center
for Pensions and Retirement Research at the University
of Pennsylvania, on the fact that beginning in January, 10,000 baby boomers
will retire each day, and
that pace will continue
for 19 years.

"Increasing confidence has freed up more money from savings. We pretty much put a bow on what has been a positive season across a number of retail areas. We are seeing this momentum building and being sustained."

- Michael McNamara, vice president of Spending Pulse, on the 5.5 percent increase in holiday sales.

"The housing market is going to shock people. Once we get the ball rolling, it becomes easy to roll. The most critical thing the Fed can do, which is not easy, is to promote job growth. If we see job growth, we are going to see a very strong housing market."

- Charles Lieberman, Advisors Capital Management L.L.C., predicting improved employment data will fuel home construction in 2011.

"The double dip is almost here."

- David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P, after a weaker-than- expected Case-Schiller
report on home prices.

"There's a haphazard strategy to how airlines address these issues. That's why passengers get so angry. It's not about the weather. It's about how airlines communicate after weather occurs."

- Brandon Macsata, executive director of the Association for Airline Passenger Rights.

"This is being driven by the appetite to find more oil, comfort that today's oil prices will be sustained, and companies getting out of a hunker-down, recession mode."

- James West,
Barclays analyst,
on companies' plans
to spend a half-trillion dollars in 2011 in
deepwater oil exploration.