Posted on 10/13/2004 5:54:48 AM PDT by Brilliant
You'd think that a high-performance economy, producing above-average growth and below-average inflation, would be a re-election ace. After all, during the 10 recovery quarters since the end of the 2001 recession, real GDP -- the most comprehensive measure of the economy -- has averaged 3.4% growth, in line with the average post-World War II expansion rate. Since the supply-side tax cuts were passed in Spring 2003, real economic growth has jumped to 4.8%, putting it at the head of the class of the past 20 years.
Somehow -- blame it on many media outlets -- this message is muted. Yet over the past year:
• Inflation-adjusted consumer spending is up 3.6%.
• Residential housing investment is up 13.2%.
• Capital-goods investment by businesses is up 13.9%.
• Spending on machine tools for heavy-industry manufacturing is up a whopping 54.2%.
• Exports and imports are up nearly 11%.
• After-tax corporate profits are up 19.5%.
• Industrial production is up 5.2%.
• High-tech production is up 23.7%.
• Productivity has reached an astonishing 4.6% rate.
• Household wealth is up 11.1%, hitting a record high of $45.9 trillion.
• The GDP deflator is up only 2.2%.
• The core consumer-spending deflator (excluding food and energy) is up only 1.4%.
• Interest rates are at 45-year lows, with short-term rates at less than 2%.
• 15-year mortgage rates are just above 5%.
• Home ownership stands at a record 69.2%.
Impressive? No, remarkable, considering the economy was up against an inherited recession, a busted tech bubble, corporate scandals, 9/11, two wars and an oil-price shock. The strong performance also sharply contrasts with ongoing weakness in Europe. John Kerry may love Europe, but GDP there is growing at less than 2%, with unemployment between 9% and 10%...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
True. France and Germany' unemployment is rising, economy is in the crapper. Of course they threaten sanctions on any EU member that attracts business with low taxes instead of lowering taxes themselves.
France and Germany would love to get Kerry elected and slow our economy down as well, just so they can look better in comparison.
But, but . . . .
TFF!!!
Almost right . . . "France and Germany would love to get Kerry elected and slow our economy down as well, just so they have someone to blame they're miseries on!"
BTW - the above is NOT just an opinion. Especially Germany, which has been suffering since at least 1990, was very quick to blame ALL it's miseries on the failing US economy back in 2001/2002. They would love to have a scapegoat again before the next elections . . .
< /sarcasm >
The steady increase in the American workforce and a 5.4% unemployment rate has to mean there are more people working than when the Bush Administration came to office. What are the Demcrats talking about when they say there have been lost jobs? And instead of using laid off workers as campaign props why don't they tell them, "GO OUT AND GET A JOB!"
I'm sure the usual suspects are frantically searching the Public Citizen, Lyndon Larouche, John Birch Society, and AFL-CIO websites for guidance on how to respond to this terrible news. Has Bernie Sanders, In These Times magazine, or vdare.com weighed-in on this important matter?
ping! Good article in the WSG that I read today.
Wished you could read the entire article, unfortunately you can't unless you have a subscription on line or subscribe to the paper.
This does give the main points in the article.
It later goes on to read the following as well...
"... Bush should highlight the household survey (the number of people actually working), which shows that 1.69 million more are employed today than when he took office. An additional 3.4 million have gone to work since the end of the recession, with 140 million Americans currenty employed-a new record. .."
Thanks! lol
I wonder how many jobs have been outsourced to the US from France and Germany?
it's times like this that I wish I could read.
Motorola said Tuesday that third-quarter profit more than tripled as sales surged in all the main lines of company business, especially wireless phones.
After the U.S. markets closed, the company reported net income of $479 million, or 20 cents per share. That's up from $116 million or 5 cents a share in the third quarter a year ago.
...The worst economy since the great depression...
...I am deeply saddened...
What the Democrats have realized, and the liberal media with them, is that if you control the presses, it doesn't matter what the truth is.
Come to think of it, that's what Hitler and Stalin thought too.
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