Pursuing Holiness

The media isn’t going to be happy until they drive us right down into a full-blown Grapes of Wrath style depression. This is getting so old - and the amazing thing is that so much of the article is self-fisking.

We’re back to the concept that “many” economists think, in spite of the fact that we have not had ANY negative growth, much less two quarters of it, that we are “close to” or in a recession.

Americans are gloomier about the economy than at any time since the early 1980s, when the economy was emerging from a decade of weak economic growth and rampant inflation. Nearly nine in 10 consumers think the economy is in recession, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan survey.

They must be getting their information from the media instead of actual reality. Even after years of MSM griping about the “horrible Bush economy,” which in fact has been far better than our financial situation under the Clintons by every metric and especially in quality of life, even though the incredible growth is just now starting to slow, they think they’re in terrible shape.

Americans are gloomier about the economy than at any time since the early 1980s, when the economy was emerging from a decade of weak economic growth and rampant inflation [When Carter implemented many of the policies espoused by Clinton and Obama today - ed]. Nearly nine in 10 consumers think the economy is in recession, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan survey.

Some economists are at a loss to explain that level of pessimism given that, so far, the data indicate the economy isn’t in such bad shape.

“While there’s no question the economy is struggling, just how anyone could confuse the current environment with the worst economy since the Great Depression is baffling to say the least,” said Wachovia chief economist John Silvia.

The answer to that riddle may be that consumers see trouble ahead that the data isn’t picking up yet. The big worry is that falling house prices will continue to chew up the home equity that has become the main financial asset for many Americans.

Or the answer to that riddle may be they’ve been listening to you partisan hacks.

Updated - in a Suitably Flip post related to an argument on capital gains taxes I found this great summary of the media’s “worst economy evar!!1!eleventy!!!1″:

As I’ve discussed here in the past, those tax cuts (which followed up the first Bush tax cuts in 2001) almost immediately ushered in the longest period of consecutive job growth on record and added fuel to a brilliant recovery from the mild recession Bush inherited from Clinton, despite the economic shock of 9/11 having occurred just as the recession was ending.

Given the economic stage that had been set, the economic growth (3% per year, with not a single negative quarter), unbroken job creation (52 months, 19 longer than Clinton’s longest stretch), and stock market appreciation (the S&P gaining more than 50%) that we’ve seen since the capital gains tax cuts have been staggering.

Updated x2: As soon as I added the Suitably Flip quote, I found this VDH article in my newsreader:

Last week, I asked a fierce Bush critic what he thought were the current unemployment rate, the mortgage default rate, the latest economic growth figures, interest rates and the status of the stock market.

He blurted out the common campaign pessimism: “Recession! Worst since the Depression!”

Then he scoffed when I suggested that the answer was really a 5 percent joblessness rate in April that was lower than the March figure; 95 to 96 percent of mortgages not entering foreclosure in this year’s first quarter; .6 percent growth during the quarter (weak, but not recession level); historically low interest rates; and sky-high stock market prices.

So much for the “reality-based community.” Could things be better? Certainly, they could always be better. And in previous years we enjoyed a better economy (that the media still denigrated) than we are enjoying right now in the midst of this slowdown. But it’s only “this bad” because it’s politically expedient for it to be; not because it’s truly bad.

written by Laura