If you've actually been paying attention to the U.S. economy under the Bush administration, you're aware that it's been nothing short of great for most of the Bush administrations time in office, since troubles from the Clinton-Gore recession and 9/11. While all sectors of real estate were hitting record levels month after month for years under Bush, the necessary slow-down has begun and the media has been rushing to spell doom for the economy through alarmist headlines, and spun articles. They were even doing this during continual record growth over the past two and three years, insisting a "crash" was imminent, but as predicted by any realisting non-BDS suffering economist, we're experiencing a necessary and healthy slowdown, particularly as the fed raises interest rates to slow inflation.

But the housing sector doesn't even scratch the surface of the media lies that are leaving most people giving negative numbers on the economy, while giving positive numbers to their own situation. I love these numbers because they prove that people are being lied to or they wouldn't think that their own positive situation was a fluke, while knocking the economy as a whole. The major problem with all of this, is that a recent Fox News poll shows that the economy is the number 1 issue on voters' minds as the midterm elections approach. Let's take a closer look at the numbers and the lies.

The jobs numbers are out today, showing that another 128,000 jobs were created last month, which brings us to more than 5.5 million jobs created in the last 3 years! This also brought the unemployment rate back down to 4.7%, from the slight increase to 4.8% in the previous month. Even if the number had stayed at 4.8, it would have still been great and lower than the average of the 70s, 80s and 90s! Better still, wages grew faster than inflation.

I do have to say that this is probably the most fair AP story I've read on the economy in recent months, though you can still sense that they're looking for something negative to print, just not as hard as usual:

The tally of new jobs last month was slightly stronger than the 125,000 that economists were forecasting. The nation's unemployment rate dropped down a notch from a five-month high of 4.8 percent in July. Job gains for June and July also turned out to be better than previously estimated. In June, employers boosted payrolls by 134,000 positions and in July they added another 121,000.

See, what is the point of that "five-month high" line? An average reader sees "unemployment was at a high", they don't know that 4.8 is still a historically low unemployment rate and barely up from the previous months which obvioiusly were also historically low, especially in an economy after the recession, 9/11, expensive wars, the New Orleans situation (that I refuse to call "Katrina"). This leaves the impression that the drop to 4.7 was some sort of fluke, when in fact it's part of the low unemployment trend. But as I said, this AP article was much more fair than most, and this is a minor offense. I do have to give them credit for including this:

Workers' average hourly earnings edged up to $16.79 in August, a 0.1 percent increase from July. Economists were forecasting a bigger, 0.3 percent advance. While workers welcome strong wage growth, economists worry that a rapid and prolonged pickup in wages can ignite inflation fears.

Over the 12 months ending August, wages grew by a strong 3.9 percent. The last time this figure was higher was in June 2001.

Oddly "Consumer Confidence" dropped, but "Consumer Spending" rose. I'm not an economist, but those two numbers would seem to contradict eachother. More importantly, I've isolated a flat out AFP lie in the short article on consumer spending growth. The whole article follows:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US consumer spending has rallied strongly in July but incomes fell, according to the government.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that personal spending rose 0.8 percent last month, after going up 0.4 percent in June. It was the fastest pace of spending since January.

Personal incomes rose 0.5 percent, a slower pace than June's increase of 0.6 percent.

Both releases were in line with Wall Street forecasts.

I hope I don't need to spell that out for you, but on the assumption a liberal might be reading this... The very first sentence says that income FELL. But by the time you get to the third paragraph you learn that it simply GREW at a slightly slower rate, but didn't fall by any means. This is one of those situations where you libs can't spin this. That first line is a lie any way you slice it.

Still with me? I'm just laying the groundwork, because the poll responses are when the issue will really sink in, so hang in there. So far we know GDP and job growth continue to be strong, the unemployment rate remains historically low, wages are increasing, etc. etc. But as you're about to see, the public continues to be very down on the economy. Of course the liberal response is "the growth only helps the rich, and the economy is bad for the average person". Well, as I've done for months (see here, here, and here), I'm about to do a preemptive strike on those sort of responses, because the fact is that most people ARE happy with their own financial situation. (All numbers that follow via American Research Group, Inc.)

First I always like to start with the biggest proof that the public is being lied to about the economy: the recession question. Consistently only about half of the country knows that we are NOT in a recession, the other half either believes that we are or is undecided. For starters there shouldn't be "undecided" because recession is an absolute, either we are or we aren't, it's not an opinion.. And the fact is WE AREN'T. Here are the numbers:

How can only half of the country not know that we aren't in a recession? The only logical conclusion is that they are getting bad information, and where do they get their information? The news media! How can 28% be so stupid to think that we are in recession, and another 22% be unsure about something that isn't an opinion question!? How!?

Before I get to the public's view of their own financial situation, here's their opinion of the economy:

Ouch! 55% see the economy either bad, very bad, or terrible, while only 44% see it as good, very good, or excellent. As bad as that is, it's actually a sharp jump from July's numbers where 68% rated the economy in the negative columns, and only 31% positively, but it still doesn't jibe with the personal situation numbers:

Whoa! 68% of the public is happy with their own financial situation, while only 31% aren't!!! Again, how do you explain this discrepency, without concluding that the public has been lied to, leaving them with the impression that they are the lucky flukes in an economy in the crapper. It probably doesn't help that virtually everytime positive economic numbers are reported, it's always with words like "unexpected" or "surprising", again leaving people with the impression the growth is out of the ordinary, while the numbers show the economy has been booming, and only in recent months has it even begun the necessary slow down to maintanable levels that won't cause inflation to go out of control.

Like with all lying liberal media issues, the big problem is that their lies (obviously) affect public opinion, and public opinion dictates how the public votes. We've got an extremely important election coming up in which the public puts the economy above terror and Iraq on their "what is important to me" scale, an economy they have a negative opinion about, because they were lied to. This of course carries across all things from national security to wars to immigration, but this is the easiest example to lay out with irrefutable facts. Please, tell your liberal friends that any financial upturn they've had isn't luck and they aren't in the minority. Or you could just wait for speaker Pelosi to come in and waste our time and money with a series of pointless investigations.

Oh, and suck on this White House summary:

On August 4, 2006, The Government Released New Jobs Figures – 113,000 Jobs Created In July. The economy has created more than 1.7 million jobs over the past 12 months – and more than 5.5 million jobs since August 2003. The unemployment rate is 4.8 percent – below the average of each of the past three decades. In addition, wages grew 0.4 percent in July, the second consecutive month of strong wage growth and faster than inflation.

The Economy Remains Strong, And The Outlook Is Favorable

• Employment Increased In 47 States Over The Past 12 Months Ending In June.
• Real GDP Grew A Strong 3.5 Percent Over The Past 4 Quarters.
• Productivity Has Grown At A Strong 3.5 Percent Annual Rate Since The First Quarter Of 2001. Productivity growth during the past five years has been at the fastest rate in nearly four decades.
• Real After-Tax Income Has Risen By 13.5 Percent Since January 2001.
• Industrial Production Increased 4.5 Percent Over The Past 12 Months.
• Manufacturing Production Has Risen 5.7 Percent Over The Past 12 Months. Manufacturing productivity has grown 4 percent over the past four quarters, faster than the 3.7 percent average growth in the 1990s.
• Strong Growth Is Helping Raise More Tax Revenues For The Federal And State Governments. In 2005, Federal tax revenues grew by $274 billion, the largest increase in 24 years, and State tax revenues are up substantially in 2006.

 

Okay, let me start by saying that I'm really getting tired of repeating myself week after week, so just see some of my other posts on the economy for much of what I'd like to say here, and then we'll get to the fresh data. See my "economy" category here. More specifically, check out this post and this post, and pay close attention to the accompanying screen shots.

Done reading all that yet? Good. The gist is essentially that America is full of a bunch of idiots (and I'll give you the latest numbers shortly), or people who put WAAAAAAAY to much trust in the liberal media. We have consistently seen, over the past 2 or 3 years, people reating their own economic situations overwhelmingly positively, while they rate the economy negatively. Knowing that these people aren't economists, in a normal situation we'd let them slide... But how can they possibly feel they're doing okay or great, but be under the impression that the rest of the country isn't. THE MEDIA! Look, it's such a cliche I know, it's almost annoying to say. But it is the obvious conclusion that any sane person has to reach. I mean if you are happy about your own finances, but you view the American economy negatively and are no professional economist, what drives your opinion. THE MEDIA.

Now as I've noted time and time again, every couple weeks for the past few years when booming economic news comes out, the media calls it "surprising" and "unexpected", to which I always ask when they'll begin to change expectations. I've now figured out the answer. They're waiting for the inevitable cooling down so they can scream with headlines "ECONOMY SLOWS DOWN" or other clever headlines that will make you think that the economy is collapsing, without actually saying that. The fact is people have been predicting "crashes" all along, but we've just had a few slowdown blip months, which is the healthy way for the economy to stabalize. But mark my words, that won't be how it will be reported. When the slowdown really takes hold, the media will report it in chicken little fashion. This isn't up for debate, we've already seen it everytime one sector had a slow month, while the constant rolling in of booming economic news is met with headlines that get passing mention in the first couple hours they're out, and then they're buried.

Now, even when the media does report the economic news it's always with the qualifiers to make it sounds not so good. They've played this masterfully because most haven't caught on to their game, and we're finally reaching a time when we will certainly see a slowdown coming soon, so they can quickly flip to slamming the economy, and most will just see it is a continuation in reporting. Here's the latest: US economy grew at 5.6 percent pace in 1st quarter

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US economy expanded at 5.6 percent pace in the first quarter, the government has said, revising upward its last estimate of a 5.3 percent growth rate.

The latest revision included an inflation estimate revised downward to 3.1 percent from 3.3 percent. The core inflation level, excluding food and energy, held at 2.0 percent.

Final sales -- a figure that includes economic activity less inventory -- were up 5.9 percent, according to the report, revised upward from the last estimate of 5.5 percent.

Consumer spending remained the driving force of the economy, showing 5.1 percent growth as measured by the report's personal consumption expenditures. That represented a slight downward revision from 5.2 percent.

Another big factor was nonresidential investment, up at a 14.2 percent pace, above the last estimate of 13.1 percent.

The report showed the output of goods and services for the world's biggest economy at an annual pace of 13.042 trillion dollars, an increase of 8.9 percent in current dollars.

(Note: I left out the sentence about the next report "expected" to show "significant cooling")

I didn't report this the other day, because as you can see from my other posts I continue to report it, and it's really just getting annoying to repeat the same things all the time. But then I saw this news today, and I had to go back and throw it up: 40 Million To Travel Over July 4th Weekend

(keep in mind, the economy is crashing and we're all broke so we can't afford to travel and pay these gas prices, etc.)

WASHINGTON (AP) - The roads and airports will likely be pretty crowded this weekend. AAA over 40 million people will travel over the Independence Day weekend. That's a record.

AAA spokesman Mantill Williams says more than 34 million of those holiday travelers will be going by car. He says high gas prices may mean people make some plan changes, but the cost won't cancel trips.

Williams says the floods in the Northeast likely won't have a big impact on travel.

An air travel expert predicts "one of the heaviest if not the heaviest" July 4th weekends ever. But Terry Trippler of Travel Passport says there shouldn't be too much of a "crush of people" at airports. He says many people will take a longer vacation because the Fourth falls on a Tuesday.

I call BS on this! A record number of people can't be traveling, we're in a recession!!!!....... Right? Well, the truth? No, we certainly aren't and this is a simple fact. We have been out of the Clinton Gore recession for years, and haven't gone back. But if you ask the American people, a majority doesn't know, or thinks that we are in recession. Thanks for such honest reporting media! Oh, it's not your fault? Then who's is it? Who led these people to believe that we're in a recession when it's not a matter of opinion, either we're in a recession or we aren't, and WE AREN'T! Don't believe me? Here's this month's screen shot of the poll results, of the "Are We In A Recession" question:

Notice that In March 59% of the country was aware that we ARE NOT in a recession, and that number has slowly gone down to 49%. What media bias!? Again, there is no other conclusion that one can reach for the idiocy of America than liberal media bias. How can 51% of the country (30% say we are in recession, 21% undecided), think we're in a recession when it's not a matter of opinion. WE ARE NOT!

This is the part where liberals chime in with "well maybe most of Americans feel that we're in a recession because it's just big corporations and Bush and Cheney's rich buddies who are making all the money. Tax Cuts for hte Rich!!!" (((BUZZER SOUND))) WRONG! As I noted earlier, month after month personally people are happy with their economic situation, but based on dishonest media reporting they have a negative view of the economy. Need more proof?

Let's go back to the American Research Group's monthly poll. In June's poll, a whopping 69% of the public rate their personal financial situation positively!!!, but how did they feel about the economy as a whole? Well, only 34% approve of Bush's handling of the economy. But wait, what happened to that other 35% that was happy about their own situation? Oh yeah, they read the constant Bush economy bashing in the media and were led to believe that as comfortable as they are, they are a fluke, and exception to the rule. You know, that 69% realize that they're just lucky, unlike the rest of us suffering. Wait, 69%? That's a healthy majority. In fact, what's odd is that around 30% (give or take) of the country identify themselves as Democrats. Hmmm...

But let's set aside the "Bush handling" of the economy question, because that gets in to partisan politics. Let's keep in mind the 69% number, and then look at the rating of the actual economy by the folks. Only 47% rate it positively!!! A difference of 22%!!! How many times can we say this: "WHAT MEDIA BIAS!?"? I'd also like to quickly note that the number of people happy with their financial situation (69%) is actually up substantially, from 52% in the previous two months. So there's no way to wiggle out of this libs. The economy is getting better for the folks, like it or not! 17% more of the country is happier with their finances this month than in the previous two months.

Now back to that difference of 69% and 47%. Would a liberal PLEAAAAAASE step forward and explain to me, how this makes any sense. How 69% can be happy with their own finances, but only 47% view the economy as a whole positively. HOW!? Sorry for all the caps and exclamation points in this post, but I'm really getting sick of having to repeat myself on this all the time. Why have we continued to see this dichotomy for years, and why does the media not report it!?

 

As always the news that the economy roars on is "unexpected".

WASHINGTON - The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly declined in March for a second consecutive month, something that hasn't happened in more than two years. The improvement reflected record U.S. exports and a big drop in the country's foreign oil bill.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that the gap between what the country sells abroad and what it imports narrowed to $62 billion in March, the smallest deficit in seven months. It was a 5.5 percent improvement from February's $65.6 billion deficit which in turn had fallen from the all-time high of $68.6 billion set in January.

more....

See more RightWinged coverage of the economy and it's "unexpected" growth in my "economy" category.

 

As always, I'm sure the blame Bush crowd will be tough to find with yet another story showing that the U.S. economy continues to boom...

Financial Times

The US economy grew at a blistering annualised rate of 4.8 per cent in the first quarter, its fastest in more than two years, as it bounced back from its post-hurricane weakness with a renewed surge of consumer spending.

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis said personal spending increased 5.5 per cent in the first quarter, compared with an increase of 0.9 per cent in the fourth. Spending on durables powered ahead at an annualised rate of 20.6 per cent, after a sharp slowdown at the end of last year.

more...

Despite years of a booming Bush economy, this is one of very few articles that doesn't call the growth "unexpected" and "surprising". Despite analysts getting one right, we could still argue that it is still "unexpected" to the public, considering that the (liberal media driven) view of the economy continues to be negative. As we've discussed before, perception of the economy isn't anywhere close to reality.

The American Research Group finds that April figures are no exception and still show an extremley uninformed public. Certainly no one reading this blog is stupid enough to believe that the economy is in recession. I mean, "recession" isn't a matter of opinion, either we are in recession or we aren't, and the fact is that we aren't... But let's see what the American public thinks, shall we?

30% say we're in recession!!! What is wrong with almost 1/3 of this country!? I know this is due to liberal media coverage, but sticking with those outlets is largely the decision of those people so they aren't without blame for being such idiots. Even stranger is that 19% are undecided! Whether or not we're in recession isn't for you to decide, either we are or we aren't. I can understand if maybe the nuber were in the single digits, because many people are just completely clueless, but this leaves ONLY 51% (roughly half) of the country that is aware of the fact that we aren't in a recession!!!

Here comes my favorite economy contradiction, we see month after month. How does the public view the economy vs. how they view their own situation. These contradict in that the economy is viewed extremely negatively by a wide majority, but people's opinion of their own situation is usually positive by a healthy margin

A total of 31% of Americans rate the national economy as excellent, very good, or good and 67% rate it as bad, very bad, or terrible.

When it comes to rating their household financial situations, 52% of Americans give an excellent, very good, or good rating and 46% give a bad, very bad, or terrible rating.

I've seen other polls that show and even broader contradiction in the two questions, but I suppose it's all in how you ask it, and what multiple choice answers are offered.

I would beg the media to begin to report fairly, but I know it would be a lost cause, not to mention the fact that after years of booming economic growth, it's bound to slow down and stabalize soon. That's always fun. Whenever there is a month of slower growth (but still growth) in any sector of the economy, that is the headline of the week. It's not reported at stabalizing or leveling out, it's treated as a "slow down" and to the casual reader, it sounds bad, when it's generally not.

All I have to say is WAKE UP AMERICA! How can half the country either think we're in a recession or be unsure?! This is the media's fault, but it's your fault for choosing those media outlets.

Previous:
President's Approval Ratings Hit New Low, 33%. Confused America Still Negative On Economy
Strong U.S. Economy Not Just Creating Jobs, But Good Jobs!
Blame Bush? Unemployment Down, AGAIN!!! Economy Continues To "Unexpectedly" Boom
Collapsing Bush Economy Continues To Surprise - 5-year High NASDAQ and S&P
This Week's "Unexpected" Housing Gains Story.
Yahoo! News Headlines Lying Again... What's New?
Today's "Unexpected" Positive Economic News...
AGAIN The Economy Beats "Expectations". When Will We Change Expectations?
Jobless Claims Hit 5-Year Low... Media yawns.

 

A new Fox News poll shows the President's approval ratings have hit a new low, 33%. Obviously this isn't good news, but it's only "news" because it's a "new" low, but his numbers have been in the toilet for a long time. Luckily he doesn't based policy and decisions on poll numbers.

One thing people should always remember is that many on the right are upset that he's sitting on his hands on the immigration issue, when we want a wall now! As I've said, I believe (or hope) that most Republicans in Washington agree with the base that the border is the biggest national security issue facing us, and we need a wall now! We can deal with all the guest worker ideas, etc. later but we need to stop the flow now. If millions of illegal Mexicans can sneak in every year, so can Al Qaeda with suitcase nukes or (insert favorite chemical or biological weapon here).

My guess is that Republicans assume (probably correctly) that if they got tough on illegal immigration, they'll lose elections, especially when the Democrats pull out the race card. They've already been out recruiting at the massive illegal immigrant rallies, many far left groups who have increasingly gained power with Washington Democrats are pushing for voting rights for illegals, Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy (among others) have appeared and spoken at illegal immigrant events.

Now, one could say, "the Republicans are no better than the Democrats then, because they aren't getting tough because they are afraid of losing elections". Which is true, however, the difference is that if they got tough, the Dems would simply pull the race card and promise all kinds of incentives (we've seen this is how they win the black vote consistently) to keep the immigrant/minority/poor vote on their side so any action taken by Republicans would probably cause many to lose elections, lose a majority, and eventually have any good work they did, reversed by Democrats.

Back on topic, I think we can safely say that the right is expressing disapproval over the President doing nothing on what we consider is the most important issue facing us right now. Where as Democrats read these poll numbers as a victory (which is sad if you look at what that really says about their motives), this isn't good for them, it's just bad for Bush/Republicans... but it doesn't gain them votes. At best it would leave Republican voters at home in future elections, but I believe most are like myself, and know that we'd be even worse off under Democratic leadereship, so we'd have to vote Republican to avoid the worse case scenario.

Another thing to look at on this poll is that the public, despite years of nothing but positive economic news, STILL has a grim view of the American economy. Even the media is finally starting to report that the economy is strong, though they ALWAYS call growth "unexpected" and "surprising". But studies have shown that the media reports negatively on the economy under Republican presidents, regardless of reality, and positively under Democratic presidents, so this has helped create the conventional wisdom that the economy is in a bad way. As I said, even the media is beginning to report the reality, but they've still treated the last few months' job numbers, housing numbers, unemployment numbers, consumer confidence numbers, etc. as flukes.

Remember this post were I detailed with polls, a claim that I always make, that polls show the public's view of the economy is negative, despite the fact that people's opinions about their own situations are positive. These are contradictory numbers that have remained in polls for years now. People assume, because of the way the media reports on the economy, that their positive economic situation is the exception to the rule, so they rank their situation positively, but crap on the overall situation. Don't believe me? Just check out the numbers here, they don't lie, and they aren't new.

Actually, just glancing at the PDF of the Fox News poll I see they asked the questions I just mentioned. You should still definitely check out those numbers from my previous post, to get an understanding of the trend, but see how it continues below. Keep in mind that Fox News doesn't offer as many multiple choice options, so the results are a little odd. Fox News only offers "Excellent", "Good", "Only Fair", "Poor", and "Don't Know". Fox News reports the "only fair" as negative, where as I would see it as neutral, but I'll just use their take. But again, note that those other polls offer a larger spectrum of choices between "Excellent" and "Terrible".

On with it... This question asks how people rate the economy, and shows that 28% rate it as either "excellent" or "good". (Poll shows shows historic public ratings of the economy)

Notice that in the following question about people's opinion of their own personal situation, this jumpst to 46%. Now again, I think this is where the "only fair" option messes things up. Notice what a huge chunk falls in to that category in both questions? On the other polls I mentioned, the it's clear these people spread out over positive and negative sides of the equation, because in those polls the trend shows that roughly two thirds of the country view the economy negatively, yet roughly two thirds view their own situation positively. This Fox News poll, due to the answer options given, shows it abit differently, but it still does show a distinct disconnect.

Also remember that in those other polls, almost a third of the country believes that we're in a recession. I mean how can you trust any poll in this country when you've got almost a third of the people who for whatever reason believe that the economy is in a recession when that isn't something up in the air. Either the economy is or isn't in a recession. We know that it isn't in recession, but apparently if you're hanging out with 2 friends, one of them believes that we are!!! How can such an uninformed public be an indicator of anything?

Of course none of this makes up for President Bush's horrible approval ratings, but I think they are important things to keep in mind as we hear Democrats parading around with "time for change" slogans. Yeah it's time for a change, but not towards the Democratic party and I don't think the Dems should be proud if they pull out some wins by default. Sadly this is all the Democrats are hoping for. Instead of putting out ideas to win on, they continue to bash and come up with clever "culture of corruption" slogans, hoping that they can slide in to a seat, not by really being voted in, but by Republicans being voted out. They should be ashamed of themselves, and anyone voting for them should be ashamed as well.

Republicans, as crappy a job as our elected officials are doing right now, do you really want Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, Dick Durbin, Pat Leahy, Charlie Rangel, etc. running the show!? I know we're all disappointed in what's going on, but let's not sit home on election day because we don't like any of them. You know what disaster it would spell if the Democrats gain any power. It's never great to have to vote for the lesser of two evils, but I think you all realize what Democratic majorities or Presidency could mean, moving forward.

 

Liberals lose again. As we know the economy has been booming for years now under Presidetn Bush, seemingly as a result of the tax cuts. Virtually every sector of the economy has shown nothing but strong growth, while the media has continued to bash the economy, driving public opinion down.

Lately though, it's been tough to ignore the fact that unemployment is down to 4.7%, lower than the average of the previous 4 decades, and over 5 million jobs have been created in just over 2 and half years!!! Through this, internet libs have tried to spin their way around the numbers by saying "they aren't good jobs, they're all service industry/restaurant type jobs". WRONG!

Excerptss from The Christian Science Monitor article:

This good news about the breadth of job creation comes against a backdrop of labor-market anxiety that has persisted despite the economy's solid overall footing. Competition from imported goods, the threat of outsourcing services abroad, and a controversial influx of illegal laborers are just some of the forces that make many workers worried about their future.

more...

But this is just part of a broader tapestry. Management and professional occupations are employing 1.2 million more people this month than a year ago - or about 1 in 3 new jobs in America. This is the highest-paying of five broad categories tracked by the Labor Department. Not all of them are CEOs or engineers, but the median paycheck for full-time workers in this category is $937 a week, far above the US median of $651.

more...

Even the manufacturing sector, which has long offered blue-collar workers a measure of middle-class prosperity, appears to be stabilizing after a period of heavy job losses. Despite downsizing in the automotive industry, 175,000 more people are employed in production occupations today than a year ago.

and...

The question, however, is how much of today's strengthening labor market represents cyclical trends, rather than long-term gains.

Uh, where have you been? This has been a long term trend. I'm no economist, but the economy has been booming for many years now, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a slowdown soon really. I mean unemployment is at historic lows, can we expect to maintain that forever? Read more here.

Previous:
Blame Bush? Unemployment Down, AGAIN!!! Economy Continues To "Unexpectedly" Boom
Collapsing Bush Economy Continues To Surprise - 5-year High NASDAQ and S&P
This Week's "Unexpected" Housing Gains Story.
Yahoo! News Headlines Lying Again... What's New?
Today's "Unexpected" Positive Economic News...
AGAIN The Economy Beats "Expectations". When Will We Change Expectations?
Jobless Claims Hit 5-Year Low... Media yawns.

I'm not expecting to see the Democrats blame Bush for this one....

Others:
GOP Bloggers, Blogs For Bush, Sister Toldjah, Cafe Hayek, Gateway Pundit, WB42, My Dogs Are Smarter

Anyone wanna fill NC Swede in? Interestingly, I hadn't looked at this guy's picture at first, and just assumed I was reading some college freshman's uninformed rants.... Then I look up and see what looks like your classic liberal professor. I don't know that he's a college professor, but he apparently was or is a teacher (according to his profile).. Shocker! Anyway, the genius provides us this bit of wisdom, among other things:

We are so afraid of losing our good jobs that we, in fact, are losing our good jobs.

 

***SCROLL FOR UPDATE***

h/t Expose the Left
Nothing surprising here considering we've had virtually nothing but excellent economic news for 3 or 4 years now, but once again we had a month of hundreds of thousands of jobs created. This time 211,000 jobs were created and the unemployment rate went down, AGAIN! Unemployment stands at 4.7, down from 4.8. Read more via AP. Of course as the article goes on, as always, they throw in a bunch of "but this" and "but that". Also, like with most positive economic news articles there is a line like this:

Employment was stronger in March than economists were expecting. Before the release of the report, they were forecasting a gain of 190,000 jobs and they said they believed the overall civilian jobless rate would hold steady.

We have seen "surprising" and "unexpected" gains in all sectors, year after year, yet no one ever changes the expectations.... They continue to bash the economy causing it to be one of the top fears on the mind of the American public, then these articles come out and they treat it like a fluke and talk about what a shock it was, despite it happening week after week.

I actually meant to post this AP article from Thursday, before these numbers were out, but talking about related news. Claims for unemployment fell for the third week straight.

WASHINGTON - The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits fell for a third straight week, providing further evidence of a strong job market.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that 299,000 laid-off workers applied for jobless benefits last week, down 5,000 from the previous week after declines of 8,000 and 7,000 in the two previous weeks.

The total number of Americans receiving benefits dipped to 2.44 million, the lowest level in six years, signaling that the labor market has posted a strong rebound after the blows received last year from the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

The housing boom has continued month after month, despite a couple years of "it's gonna crash soon... just wait 'til next month" from the "experts". Again, this has helped the media be able to pump polls that show the public concerned about the economy, despite the fact that if they were informed they should be happy with it. Studies have been done to show how the media portrays economic news under Democrat and Republican Presidents and showed that it was portrayed more negatively under Republicans, and positively under Democrats, despite the realities.

Most "experts" are finally beginning to accept that the red hot housing market will eventually stabalize (though the media still likes to use "slow down" because it sounds kind of bad), but it won't "crash" as has been repeatedly predicted. And why wouldn't it? It has to slow down at some point, and it's had a record setting run for over 5 years now!

Jumping back quickly to employment, I have to always mention that around 5 million jobs have been created in about three and a half years... Well, let me bring in someone else who'd like to sum it up nicely for you... Now he's not the greatest public speaker when it comes to prepared speeches, but he can give you a nice summary as I said. Your floor Mr. President:

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This morning's economic report shows that America's growing economy added 211,000 jobs in the month of March. The American economy has now added jobs for 31 months in a row, created more than 5.1 million new jobs for American workers. The unemployment rate is now down to 4.7 percent -- that's below the average rate of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Thank you Mr. President. Let's have a big round of applause for "tax cuts for the rich"! Now we'd like to open the floor to the "Blame Bush" crowd. Come on, you guys are always there to blame him for everything, even suggesting he's worsening the mythical "global warming" and causing hurricanes... Someone out there must want to blame him for these jobs being created. No one? Well, I guess they must all be off trying to figure out how today's tornadoes were his fault.

P.S.: If you find the time to blame these jobs on Bush, you might also figure out a way to blame him for the consumer confidence figures rising. Thanks.

P.P.S: Bush is evil. Iraq. Libby. Democrats Win! A time for change! We have a plan!... and if you're lucky some day we'll tell you what it is, instead of NOW sharing our ideas that we claim are so great with the Republicans to work together to get things done out of actual concern for Americans. Nope, we'll keep these ideas as safe as John Kerry's Iraq plans during the 2004 election that he would have revealed if he'd only won.

***UPDATE***
I forgot to mention this earlier... Sensible Mom emailed me a link to an article along the lines of what I'm always talking about with media portrayal of the economy driving negative public opinions (and I think the economy could do even better if people weren't so scared by the dishonest hate Bush media misleading them about our economic health). This TCS Daily article goes in depth on this very topic, but more interesting was a poll they link to from the American Research Group.

American Research Group's poll contains a section that asks people if they believe we are in a recession. Stupid, right? I mean, even people who are ill informed by the media and aren't aware that the economy is booming, would have to be aware that we aren't in a recession, right?! WRONG!? While it fluctuates, and the most recent number, 29%, who say they believe we're in a recession is crazy enough, what's really disturbing is that in recent months that number has been in the 40s!!! What liberal media!?

Need more? I often make the claim that I've seen polls that show that while people feel negatively about the economy, the majority are happy with their own financial situations. Obviously that's not necessarily a contradiction, but in a way it kind of is, right? I mean, how can a majority of people be happy with their situation, yet a strong majority also think the economy is in the toilet? Because the media is leading folks to believe that the economy is in the toilet, so financially happy people assume that they must be the exception rather than the rule.

Check it out:

A total of 40% of Americans rate the national economy as excellent, very good, or good and 59% rate it as bad, very bad, or terrible.

When it comes to rating their household financial situations, 65% of Americans give an excellent, very good, or good rating and 32% give a bad, very bad, or terrible rating.

A little odd don't you think? America, you've been had. Liberal media, once again you've been busted. And no one is saying to hype anything, that wouldn't do us any good... but report honestly, and quit portraying the economy so negatively because without all the pessimism out there, it could probably be even better!

 

This is just today's "unexpected" economic gains, via AP by way of Yahoo! News.

NEW YORK - The Nasdaq composite and Standard & Poor's 500 indexes closed at five-year highs Wednesday after a positive report on the economy's service sector pushed stocks modestly higher. A jump in oil prices, however, minimized Wall Street's gains.

The Institute for Supply Management's service index, an important barometer of that sector's activity, came in at 60.5 for the month, up from 60.1 in February and better than the 59 reading economists expected. The modest gains were enough to encourage Wall Street about that sector's growth, but did not appear to reignite the market's interest rate worries.

read more...

I cover some of the past recent "unexpected" and "surprising" economic news in posts in my "economy" category.

Virtually every economic number that comes out has shown nothing short of a booming economy for a number of years now. Unemployment is at historic lows and about 5 million jobs have been created in about two and half years, and we continue to see months of 200,000-300,000 jobs created, and it's always "surprising" and beating "expectations". But then whenever there is a slowdown in any segment of the housing sector it's the big news of the weak how the "housing crash" is here, despite the fact that all indications are that there may be a slowdown, but not a crash. Despite this, polls still show the public fearing for the economy due to being uniformed by a liberal media that studies have proven portray the economy negatively, despite the reality under Republican Presidents, and the other way around under Democratic Presidents.

 

For the past few years, it's almost on a weekly basis, that we hear positive news about the housing market (and economy in general) that the media stories always describe as "unexpected" or "suprising". As always I have to ask, when will you stop "expecting" negatively, and just accept that the economy under Bush is strong!

Today's story from the AP is about existing home sales:

Sales of existing homes unexpectedly rose last month as a warmer than usual winter boosted demand in many parts of the country, but a slack demand in some areas produced what one analyst called a "tale of two cities."

The National Association of Realtors reported Thursday that that sales of existing single-family homes and condomiums rose by 5.2 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.91 million units.

The Realtors have been forecasting that sales of previously owned homes would fall by about 5 percent this year compared to last year's record pace. But Lereah said he may have to revise that forecast given the unexpected strength in February.

Of course this comes on the heels of Yahoo! News flat out lying in a headline saying" "U.S. homeowners in peril as boom collapses", which I personally busted the other day.

Today's article reluctantly and briefly touches on other positive economic news, like continued gains in the jobs market:

In other economic news, the Labor Department reported that the number of newly laid off Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits fell by a larger-than-expected 11,000 week to 302,000, signaling that the labor market remains healthy.

But the article spends a lot of pointless time speculating on hypothetical "crashes" and trying to paint a bleak picture for our economic future. This is standard practice for the AP and most of the media, which is the main reason polls often show that Americans are more concerned about the economy than terrorism or Iraq, despite being happy with their current situations. Of course we know the countless studies that prove the liberal media bias, but there have been studies particularly about economic reporting that have shown how negatively the media portrays the economy (despite the reality) under Republican Presidents vs. Democrat Presidents. Here's a little info (don't whine about the source, I just don't have time to dig up the actual study they're reporting on)

The media continues to pretend that GDP, GNP, Job Creation, Unemployment numbers, all areas of the housing market, etc. etc. etc. have haven't been booming for years, when by anyone's account they have! Did you know that we've created about 5 million jobs in the past two and a half years?! Probably not if you're following the MSMs coverage. We consistently have months of 200,000-300,000 jobs created and the media makes quick mention but always jumps back to negative speculation about the future of the economy. Then another month rolls by with nothing but positive numbers and as always they're all "surprised", and round and round we go.

Of course we know that eventually there will have to be a slow down. We've had 5 years of record grow, what do you want?

Economists believe that both new and existing home sales will dip by around 5 percent this year as rising mortgage rates cuts into demand. The concern is whether the decline could be more sizable than that. Some analysts are worried about that the speculative fervor in housing over recent years could come crashing down similar to the bursting of the stock market bubble in the early part of this decade.

But Lereah said all indications so far were pointing to a gradual slowdown in sales to a more sustainable pace.

Note that you don't have to be an economic expert, just a media watcher to realize that such a "slowdown" to a "sustainable pace" isn't negative thing, it's just a leveling out. As I said, you can't boom forever. But the slowdown would just level growth out to a steady but strong pace, but doesn't mean negative numbers. But that is the way the average reader might digest much of this kind of news. It's a slowdown in a growth, not a 180 to a negative trend.

Check out this older post of mine where I link to similar stories from late last year (since my blog wasn't around back then) that represent all of what I've been talking about, and are comparable with this article. More here and here too. And again, make sure you check out where I bust Yahoo! LYING here, and discuss some similar things as I did in this post.

Keep in mind, these are not isolated stories, and it's probably at least 5 or 6 times a month that we get positive economic news, almost always labeled as "surprising" and "unexpected". I have just not always reported it, in part because I've seen the stories and been to busy to spend the time disecting them, and they just sometimes come so frequently it's time to keep up!

 

If you read this blog often you know I enjoy busting Yahoo! for their lying and misleading headlines, and do so fairly regularly. Granted, much of the time it's actually AP wire stories by way of Yahoo! News, but the headlines are showing up on Yahoo!'s home page, and they choose what shows up there. Often times the headline showing up on Yahoo!'s home page doesn't match the actual headline on the article, if you click through. This is one of those instances, only the worst part is the headline they are using on the home page is A FLAT OUT LIE!

Check out the screen shot here, and see below for a cropped shot of the area in question:

"U.S. homeowners in peril as boom collapses"

I don't think I need to explain why this is a flat out lie, but if you're a liberal reading this, perhaps I do. It's quite simple really... The housing boom hasn't collapsed and isn't collapsing. Will it eventually? Who knows, but that's irrelevant, though I'm sure that's how you delusional libs will seek to defend this. I wouldn't think any sane person would do such a thing, but you guys never cease to amaze me.

So again, saying "as boom collapses" is as perfect an example of a lie as it gets. No spinning it, it's a lie. Now, as I mentioned, this is one of those cases where the headline in the story doesn't match the one used on the Yahoo! home page, leading me to believe that the libs at Yahoo! News chose to write their own lying headline for the Christian Science Monitor article, who's headline on the article page reads:

"Homeowners stretched perilously"

The first paragraph is only one sentence and proves the Yahoo! selected headline to be a lie with the very first word:

BOSTON - If the nation's real estate boom collapses, its first victims may well be low-income minorities and immigrants in a big US city like Boston.

If

So either there is an agenda here, or Yahoo! has people who's reading comprehension is at a level with pre-schoolers. Which is it Yahoo!?

Of course the article is negative, but not the "spells doom for the economy" message Yahoo! hoped to get across with their headline. Basically it's about people, particularly in Boston, who overextended themselves when buying their homes. They bought homes that they really couldn't afford with adjustable interest rates and now they're in trouble. This is about bad personal decisions and is no reflection of the economy, despite what Yahoo! and the media would like you to think.

First of all, what goes up must come down... or at least level out. I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to believe the housing boom could continue to surge as it has for the past handful of years and continue setting records forever, that's just obviously impossible. But we've been hearing the media screaming "collapse" for years as well and it has yet to happen. There have been "slow down" months here and there for particular parts of the housing sector, but even still 2005 was a record year on virtually all fronts.

I'm no expert, but I occassionally listen to the business shows on TV and it doesn't sound like any real experts are predicting a "collapse". A leveling out and slow down seems to be the most likely eventual scenario. But even if there were to be a collapse at some point, that doesn't mean Yahoo! can come out way before hand and pretend there already is one.

Your move Yahoo!

UPDATE

I just finished this and realized that I forgot to mention something. In those instances when the headline from Yahoo!'s home page doesn't match the one on the article, it sometimes seems like they're in the process of transitioning to an updated version of an AP wire story, and you can usually search the "old" headline Yahoo! News and see that others picking up wire feeds had it too, and that it's just now changed. You can sort of Yahoo! slack in those instances, but then the heat needs to be on the AP or whoever wrote the story/headline with false information, which happens all too often.

But this case was different, I searched the headline that Yahoo! was running and it's no where to be found. Just more obvious that they wrote it themselves.

I also went to The Christian Science Monitor's page to find the article there just to see if there was anything different, and there are a couple. Mainly just that they have this subheadline there:

More than a quarter in Boston spend at least half their pay on housing. Blacks are hit hard.

"Hit hard"? No, read the article and see that they just got in over their heads. But I guess pulling race in to it makes for a better story and might cause more outrage, right? Of course this isn't that big of a deal, just a little annoying.... but it's not that bad considering it's not flat out lying like Yahoo!

 

Read my previous posts on the topic of the media's constant economy bashing, causing Americans to be more concerned about it than terrorism and Iraq, despite the reality of booming economic growth on all fronts year after year. See here, here, and I can't seem to find other posts I remember making. I have the links if you really want them, but there was like one week in October or November when there were like 4 or 5 different positive economic stories from all different fronts, and they were all "unexpected", etc. The poitn is the "expectations" need to change because the media generated public sentiment is holding the economy back, and it could be even greater.

I'm too lazy to repeat myself on how ridiculous public opinion is about the economy and all the "chicken little" syndrome the Dems and media have imposed on the American people, all the while GDP, GNP, Housing starts, New Jobs, record low unemployment etc. have surged through, even in the face of ridiculously high oil and Katrina & Rita and an international war on terror. Again, I don't want to waste time repeating myself so check out those previous posts (though again, I know there are others I can't find for some reason.)

Anyway, this is today's "unexpected" story:

Economic data on Thursday pointed to unexpected strength in the U.S. housing market thanks to mild winter weather in January, while import prices surged and weekly jobless claims rose more than expected.

The Commerce Department said new home construction soared 14.5 percent last month to the highest level in nearly 33 years as groundbreaking on new single-family houses hit a record.

 

scroll for updates

Don't expect to hear much about this, but as usual the economy beats "expectations" (I still question the motives of all those doing the "expecting").

(excerpt below, read entire with detailed breakdown and more.)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. retail sales surged 2.3 percent in January, nearly triple the expected increase and the largest gain since May 2004, as post-holiday spending on cars, clothing, gasoline and furniture galloped ahead, a government report showed on Tuesday.

Excluding demand for cars and parts, retail sales were up 2.2 percent last month - the largest monthly gain in more than six years, the U.S. Commerce Department said.

Is it me, or do we get story after story like this, month after month!? And ever time it's "beats expectations", "better than expected growth", "surged forward when a decline was forecast", etc. I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of it. I'm not going to rant on about it, as I've done in the past, providing you sampling of links to similar reporting. We've all seen the polls that show Americans are more concerned about the economy than they are Iraq or terrorism. This is a direct result of the liberal media's Michael Moorish "there is no terrorist threat" attitude, causing a shocking percentage of our population to become complacent. We've also all seen the studies proving, specifically on the economy, how the media reports it negatively under Republican administrations no matter how it's going (psst... it's been booming for years now, yet that remains the top concern of Americans...hmmm), vs. Democrat administrations. If you haven't seen these studies, and insist, I suppose I can probably dig them up.

Anyway, the polls always show that Americans are overwhelmingly personally happy about their own economic situation, but worried about the economy overall. Could that be because we're doing great, but reporting leads everyone to believe that they are the exception rather than the rule.

Again, I don't want to go in to detail on these things because I feel like I'm treading water. Republicans already know, Dems will continue to deny it no matter what evidence they're face with. But if you insist that I back anything up here, I'll be happy to do a little digging if needed.

Setting that all aside, despite the constant booming economic news, I don't think we should be surprised to see a slowdown in most sectors in the near future. I mean, I'm not an economist, but how long can we continue to set records on all different fronts (GDP, GNP, Job Growth, Unemployment, etc.)? It's been going on for a number of years now and there has to come a time when it slows down, right? We're at shockingly low unemployment right now, so it's sort of like it has to go up and the media will be all over it, despite almost totally ignoring it when it goes down. They'll be screaming "recession" worries on the mountain tops when we get an incrimental increase, or a slow or negative job creation month. They don't care about years of steady growth when the man in the White House has an R next to his name, but the moment there is any slightly negative news you better believe it's the top story.

Ah, I'm bored by this now... I've been so annoyed at this week after week for so long now, it's getting to the point why I even bother thinking about it, or passing along the info....

Update: Stocks surge, oil dips....

 

(scroll for update)

A new Fox News-Opinion Dynamics poll completely contradicts an AP-Ipsos poll on the same topic. This is suspicious to say the least. You might recall an AP-Ipsos poll out just a couple days ago, that supposedly said that Americans didn't support the NSA monitoring electronic communications between people in the US and suspected terrorists overseas:

56 percent of respondents in an AP-Ipsos poll sa