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Government reports reveal hopeful patches of revival, meaning that the catalysts from the White House and Fed have begun to work.

Several factors have been at work to subdue any recovery process. Energy prices are at the center of my list. Paper plants consumer huge quantities of energy in the pulping operation alone. Why are energy prices high? I think part of it relates to the Arab terrorists. Even now they are working hard to ensure that Iraqi oil doesnt hit the world market. Get gasoline back to 80 cents a gallon and we will have a recovery. People will travel, airlines make money, etc. I think the bitter pill the free world will have to endure is the elimination of terrorist cells and not in ten years. Force is the only true answer to the dilemna but do the people of the US have the courage to make it happen. I am doubtful on this just listening to the "Where are the WMD" crowd. Maybe life in America hasnt gotten painful enough yet to put a stop to those who would destroy our way of life, but we are getting there.

Force is the only true answer to the dilemna but do the people of the US have the courage to make it happen. I am doubtful on this just listening to the "Where are the WMD" crowd. Maybe life in America hasnt gotten painful enough yet to put a stop to those who would destroy our way of life, but we are getting there.

the peaceniks are happy to try to grow their own food, protest and vote for whichever Dimocrat sounds the most socialist to them.

"Maybe life in America hasnt gotten painful enough yet to put a stop to those who would destroy our way of life, but we are getting there."

I noticed a reference in one scenario in the article to capacity receeding back to 1994 levels. I recall a very strong political shift in 1994 that gave rise to "The Contract With America," and a change to the entire political landscape from D.C., all the way down to local elective offices. (or maybe it was the other way around)

The excesses of the Hitlery Clinton power grab for government control one seventh of the entire economy, the excesses of the EnvironMental Communutty and the excesses of the ATF/FBI at Ruby Ridge and Waco as well as the economic slump made life in America very painful and threatening and finally woke folks up to vote a stop to 30 years of liberal excess.

Your perception and perspective are right on target and I have believed that the cyclical repetition of history is also quite similar to 1982 when the Dow was at 712, waiting for the Reagan Tax Cuts after the "Stagflation" of Jimmy Carters inept administration. Look what happened immediately after these two periods of correction in our economic/market history.

In 1994, folks said they'd had enough of the no growth nimbyism, pseudo environmentalism and manufactured fear of the media and I sense this break-out mentality is about to manifest it'self again in 2004. People are weary of the liberal drum-beat of negativity and it's about dang time!!!

What you see is true, in the sense that energy costs dropping adequately would "return prosperity", and in the sense that this can only be done through violent means. Further, this approach is so politically attractive that the political class is pursuing it avidly. The Arabs realize this fully. So do the Russians, Chinese, and even French. Utterly common knowledge. Wars do not occur for simple reasons, nor do other aspects of politics.

"Energy prices are at the center of my list."

They're at the top of my list.

GW is playing a complicated political game.
We went into Iraq to secure the second largest oil reserve in the world because we need the oil for our economic recovery. We will reap the benefits instead of the French, Germans and Russians.
As long as oil is $30/bbl our economy will remain stagnated.

GW will do it the same way that Ronald Reagan did it.
The tax cuts are cosmetic. The real answer is dropping the price of energy.
Ronald Reagan did it in 1985 when he convinced the Saudis to open the taps and lower the price of oil to $11./bb, and he destroyed the "Evil Empire" in the process.
Saudi doesn't have the power it did in 1985. OPEC will never allow the price of oil to get that low again; therefore, we had to have another source of plentiful oil - Iraq.
We're sitting on it, and we will produce it as fast as possible.

At the same time GW realizes that the economy may not turn around in time to assure him the election in 2004; hence, the pandering to the Hispanic vote and the acceptance of hundreds of thousands of illegals who are flooding this country.
In doing so he has the side benefit of millions of dollars of campaign funds from the mega corporations who depend on cheap labor.