IMO, the media may be only helping the Bush Admin. As a financial markets trader, we often kick around the saying,"the markets climb a 'wall of worry' and fall on a 'slope of hope'". As a contrarian,myself, there is a lot of credence to this saying. The more they downplay the economy, the more potential there is for a market climb. I think we should make new highs before Nov. I think we should make new lows first, though, in the weeks to come.
bump for later discussion
The poor democrat dogs MUST be getting kicked by their owners when this good economic news comes out night after night.
Housing prices going through the roof. It's a seller's market, but who can afford to buy?
If there weren’t people who could afford to buy, housing prices wouldn’t be going through the roof, you ignorant mumbling jackass.
Re: The 5 month recession of 1991 - In early 1992 I was in a position where I reviewed weekly retail sales from around the country. It was clear in that 1st quarter of 1992 that the economy had turned around. I read the NYT daily in 1992 and it continuosly referred to the recession in both the front page and the Business section. Without exageration the first NYT notice that the recession had ended appeared at the end of November 1992. Unfortunate timing for the first Pres. Bush. The point is it is amazing how long they can drag out the bad news.
I don't take such a sanguine view of the media. They were proclaiming that the economy was fabulous under Clinton. The media went along with Clinton's 1992 claims that the economy under George Bush Sr. was the worst in 50 years. That is NOT just incompetence, that is active partisanship to help the Democrats. And the day AFTER the election, Peter Jennings announced that the US had just experienced its 6th month of economic growth. But I didn't hear ANYTHING positive from him in the 5 previous months. Incompetence, yes; but the media is partisan toward Democrats, and nothing that this guy writes can convince me otherwise.
Good. Now if CBS Marketwatch can just get in touch with their own Dan Rather and explain this to him....:o)