Quote:
Originally Posted by fintstone
We don't have either. The dollar has lost much of its value. Unemployment is the worst in decades as well as the deficit and national debt...nothing is getting better. Now he is working to raise taxes and take over as much of the economy as possible. That is like throwing paper money at your house after setting it on fire. The only thing that seems successful is making the US into another third world nation. How is that Hope and Change working out for you now?
|
"Nothing is getting better"?
Let's see.
Industrial production bottomed and is rising QOQ. Consumer spending is rising, YOY and QOQ. Disposable income is rising, YOY and QOQ. Home prices are stable and starting to rise, ditto existing home sales. Corporate profits are recovering, pretty smartly in some sectors. Bond yields are way down, credit market indicators are improving, lending to corporate/consumer has stabilized and is possibly starting to improve. Leading economic indicators are rising. Equity prices have partly recovered.
Meanwhile, employment is lagging, with job losses slowing down but not stopped yet. Yes, government budgets are in deficit.
In short, the leading indicators of the economy have turned positive while the lagging indicators are still negative. This is pretty typical for an economy at the inflection point between recession and recovery. And since 3Q was the first quarter of positive GDP, the economy is indeed at an inflection point.
A lot of people view the economy through ideological eyes and don't objectively assess the data. A lot of others forget that, by definition, the economy is at its grimmest when the recovery begins. And many others fail to appreciate that the federal government's "operating margin" aka budget surplus/deficit is extremely cyclical, when the economy is very bad the budget will be in major deficit even with no change of policy.