New York Times: U.S. Economy Still Expanding at Rapid Pace
The New York Times admits that the economy is going gangbusters. It must have pained them to write prose like this:
Yet the national economy continues to speed ahead, with families and businesses spending money at an impressive pace. Forecasters expect the Commerce Department to report this morning that the economy grew at a rate of around 5 percent in the first quarter, the biggest increase since 2003.
The industries leading the way are ones that have been receiving far less attention than cars or real estate, though they have been adding thousands of new workers each month. In the last year, hospitals, doctors’ offices and other health care employers have created almost 300,000 jobs; restaurants have added 230,000; and local governments — including schools — have added 170,000.
“Boeing Corporation, for instance, plans to deliver 395 commercial planes in 2006, up 36 percent from a year ago, many of them to foreign airlines.”
“The good news for the U.S. is that growth has diversified,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight, an economic research firm. “We aren’t just relying on the consumer and housing.”
…
But for now, the economy is on a fast track. The fact that interest rates remain low, despite the Fed’s rate increases of the last two years, is a big reason. The average rate on a 30-year conventional mortgage was 6.3 percent last month, lower than at any point in the 1970’s, 1980’s or 1990’s, according to the Fed.
…
Somerset Collection, an upscale mall near Detroit, will be undergoing renovations in coming months to make room for more stores, including a Barneys Co-Op, an outlet store for Barneys New York, the high-end clothing retailer, and for Stuart Weitzman, which sells designer shoes and handbags. Restaurants around the country are also benefiting as Americans spend an ever-larger portion of their food budgets on prepared meals.
P. F. Chang’s now owns 230 restaurants — including about 100 Pei Wei Asian Diners, which are less expensive than the chain’s main restaurant — up from 208 at the start of the year. It employs 21,000 workers; Mr. Welborn said the company had recently had to raise wages to attract workers.
“It’s becoming increasingly challenging for us to find talent in the markets we’re opening up in,” he said.
Healthy economic growth in other countries, including China and India, is also playing a role. Although this country buys far more from those countries than it sells to them, strong global growth is lifting American exports, economists say.
Last week, the International Monetary Fund predicted that the world economy would grow at 4.9 percent this year, up from 4.8 percent in 2005.
The Boeing Corporation, for instance, plans to deliver 395 commercial planes in 2006, up 36 percent from a year ago, many of them to foreign airlines. The company has already sold all the planes it will build this year and 98 percent of the planes it will build in 2007.
However, they couldn’t resist getting in a few digs:
Gas prices are rising, as are mortgage rates. House prices in many once-hot markets have started slipping. The American automobile industry shows no sign of recovery. And the paychecks of most workers have not even kept up with inflation over the last four years.
…
Americans seem to have noticed the boom, too. [no thanks to the mainstream media — Mike] Although polling suggests that they are deeply unhappy with the war in Iraq and worried about the price of gas, they report being generally pleased with the state of the economy.
A well-known index of consumer confidence has risen to its highest level in four years, according to the Conference Board, a research company in New York. In the most recent CBS News poll, conducted last month, 55 percent of respondents rated the economy as good, even though 66 percent of Americans said the country was on the wrong track.
In 23 years of polling by CBS, only once — in late 2005 — did a higher percentage of people say the country was on the wrong track.
During the 1990s, all the media talked about was how wonderful the economy was and how it was all due to Bill Clinton’s brilliance. Now, we have a better economy — not based on Dot-Coms that had nothing more than a dream and a chalkboard — than we had during the Clinton years and we barely hear a peep out of the press. And when they do say something positive, it’s so full of caveats that one comes away from the story just certain that the good news is an aberration and the economy will collapse soon because of Chimpy McHitler’s stupidity.
(Open trackbacks sent to Stop The ACLU, MacBros Place, Gospal Fiction, Comedian Jenée: People are Idiots, Woman Honor Thyself, NIF, Right Wing Nation, imagine kitty magazine)
Stingray: a blog for salty Christians linked with Journalists still playing fast and loose with the truth
Stingray: a blog for salty Christians linked with Journalists still playing fast and loose with the truth
Stingray: a blog for salty Christians linked with Journalists still playing fast and loose with the truth
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I came across an article written a few weeks ago and was even more amazed than usual at how little truth the piece contained. The title is ominous — Iraq Quagmire, Domestic Troubles Have Bush Setting Sites on Iran — and the writer, John Han... [Read More]
» Journalists still playing fast and loose with the truth from Stingray: a blog for salty Christians
I came across an article written a few weeks ago and was even more amazed than usual at how little truth the piece contained. The title is ominous — Iraq Quagmire, Domestic Troubles Have Bush Setting Sites on Iran — and the writer, John Han... [Read More]
» Journalists still playing fast and loose with the truth from Stingray: a blog for salty Christians
I came across an article written a few weeks ago and was even more amazed than usual at how little truth the piece contained. The title is ominous — Iraq Quagmire, Domestic Troubles Have Bush Setting Sites on Iran — and the writer, John Han... [Read More]
» Journalists still playing fast and loose with the truth from Stingray: a blog for salty Christians
I came across an article written a few weeks ago and was even more amazed than usual at how little truth the piece contained. The title is ominous — Iraq Quagmire, Domestic Troubles Have Bush Setting Sites on Iran — and the writer, John Han... [Read More]
