It's the expansion, stupid

CBS MarketWatch ^ | 6/1/2004 | Chris Pummer

[craig_eddy]

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, major TV networks and financial magazines keep repeating a serious error I've meant to call them on, but haven't, because my own Web site makes the same grave mistake.

To hear Big Media tell it, the U.S. economy is in a fragile state of "recovery" that threatens to be undermined at any moment, by rising interest rates, by soaring gas prices, by another terrorist attack.

In fact, the economy has been in a state of rip-roaring "expansion" -- the strongest in 20 years -- yet the media persists in painting a dreary picture.

[craig_eddy]

Someone finally talks about talking down the economy.

[Captain Rabbit]

You know what would really help the economy?

John Kerry taking billions more from the American public in order to spend on programs that we really want but aren't smart enough to know that we want. Boy, watch the economy take off like a rocket once we're all relieved of the stress of deciding what we want to do with our money! Yowza!

[q_an_a]

Here is a key comment about journalists... "Don't blame on malice what can best be attributed to incompetence."

All the stories about big companies shipping jobs, Walmart dominating the world etc. can be summed up in that sentence. "If we live in a service economy, how come you could not get any this weekend?"