Jack Welch and his merry band of job truthers must be tearing out what little hair they collectively can find a top their heads.
A cascade of economic data out today—all from the private sector—is making it more than clear that not only is the economy performing far better than people seem to think, but that last week’s BLS job numbers turn out to make more than perfect sense.
A warning—if your politics and ideology do not permit you to accept good economic news without experiencing a severe panic attack, you might wish to avert your eyes as I'm afraid this is going to upset you.
According to the Bloomberg Economic Surprise Index, which compares 36 indicators with the predictions of various analysts, “the economy is improving more than professional forecasters anticipated, particularly in data on employment and housing.”
Citing the Index, Bloomberg reports-
“The index, based on gauges compiled by private businesses and trade groups in addition to government, confirms U.S. growth is generating jobs in the face of a global slowdown and looming federal spending cuts and tax increases known as the fiscal cliff.”
And it gets better.
According to Citigroup’s Economic Surprise Index, things are even better than what was reported by the Bloomberg measurement as the Citygroup data reveals a dramatic jump in economic activity—rising from this year’s low of negative 65.3 on July 19th to today’s positive 49.4.
Want more?
According to the National Association of Realtors, the sale of previously owned houses rose 7.9 percent in August, reaching a two year high while automobile sales in September came in just south of 14.9 million, the best since 2008.
And then there is that old standby, the Thompson Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index which rose to 83.1 from last month’s 78.3 and, more significantly, reached its highest number since September 2007, before the recession began.
Sometimes good news is just that—good news.
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While nobody knows what the events in Europe may have in store for us, there can simply be no rational or plausible denial of the reality that the U.S. economy is coming back far stronger than what the doom and gloomers—translation: Republicans—want us to believe.
And while we are profoundly sorry that Americans are getting the word of these very positive indicators at so inconvenient at time—the election being just a few weeks away—I think the rest of us are just going to let ourselves feel good about this and leave Jack, Donald and the rest of their crew to take it up with their Twitter accounts.
Contact Rick at thepolicypage@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @rickungar
