Posted on 11/03/2004 5:46:04 AM PST by OESY
...Obscured by America's election frenzy and Western Europe's gloomy unemployment, the environment for global growth has been the best in many decades. U.S. GDP grew a solid 3.9% in the four quarters through September, while economies in Japan, Brazil, China, India, Turkey and Russia are expanding at or near their highest pace in decades. Thus, fast growth likely encompassed more of the world's population and land mass in 2004 than ever before. This broadening of global growth emphasizes the power of freedom and markets and the past weight of communism, world wars, the 1970s inflation and the late 1990s deflation....
In the '90s, the U.S. was practically the only engine of global growth, making the outlook vulnerable and volatile. The U.S. may have rejoiced, then, in its own economic conditions, but... many parts of the world were shrinking or growing well below their potential... [E]conomic conditions abroad affected its national security, immigration policy and future growth....
The biggest threat is for the U.S. to hunker down into protectionism, stopping an otherwise durable expansion. Another dangerous idea being bandied about is to weaken the dollar to pre-empt the U.S. move toward protectionism. A weak-dollar policy would risk inflation and capital flight without addressing the issues underlying the trade deficit -- the attractiveness of the U.S. investment climate, our heavy taxation of saving, and the weakness in investment and growth abroad.
A better alternative to protectionism and an even weaker dollar would be to launch an energetic Global Prosperity Initiative aimed at lengthening the global expansion and helping lift living standards in developing countries. The principles of U.S. growth are clear: limited government, sound money, trade liberalization, low tax rates, and a brief constitution as the basis for the rule of law....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
If Kerry were the incumbent and the economy had these numbers, the Media would have shouted the good news from the rooftops.
Bump.
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