Posted on 09/04/2007 8:24:09 AM PDT by NaturalGorilla
A strong economy with a weak housing sector is the picture painted by economic data released today.
According to the Commerce Department, U.S. construction spending fell in July as outlays for housing plunged. Construction declined by 0.4 percent. The decline followed a 0.1 percent gain in June.
Meanwhile, economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in August for the seventh consecutive month, while the overall economy grew for the 70th consecutive month...
(Excerpt) Read more at economicsbriefing.com ...
The housing sector is pretty cyclical. We bought a house on a bailout many years ago...a Grant from the government of about $3,000 on a $45,000 NEW house. The interest rate was 8% at the time. Afew years later...they were about 17%.
bump
People have been negative on the economy in general since Bush took office. It’s really nuts. I swear if you ask most people since around 2000 at any time, they’d say we’re in a depression.
If you ask them how it was 2 years before that instant, they’d probably say it wasn’t that bad. It’s a weird media-driven malaise.
Not much different than 1992. Prior to the election season there was a small downturn, but during the campaign the economy was clicking on all calenders and yet the 'It's the economy, stupid' was a huge hit with the media despite the reality.
Housing - especially the prices - got way ahead of itself. This slowdown is just a return to the mean.
Believe me, I remember. It was summed up to me by some old guy screaming ‘DO SOMETHING’ as if the entire economy was being completely destroyed within weeks.
If you go on IRC and paste positive economic news, you’ll get 500 posts in an instant on a dead channel about how it’s all wrong and everything is has gone to hell forever.
Eventually the negativity can overcome any positive reality, and that’s the sad part.
And the chocolate ration is being increased to 28gm per week!
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