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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Thursday the U.S. economy was pulling away from the shoals of a sharp housing-sector downturn and that the outlook for growth was "reasonably good." "Most of the negatives in housing are probably behind us," Greenspan said at a conference sponsored by the Commercial Finance Association "The fourth quarter should be reasonably good, certainly better than the third quarter." The government reports on third-quarter economic growth on Friday. After shooting ahead at a 5.6 percent annual clip at the start of the year, the economy advanced only 2.6 percent in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A slowing economy will cut U.S. tax revenue growth from its surprisingly robust pace of the past year, but the federal budget deficit could still shrink a bit further in fiscal 2007, some economists say. Much depends on how quickly and deeply the economy brakes in coming months, and how this affects corporate earnings -- a big driver behind the 22.3 percent reduction in the deficit to $247.7 billion in fiscal 2006, a figure announced by the Bush administration last week. "As long as we don't find new things to spend money on and we have moderately...

THE ORDINARY NERVOUSNESS of investors and market watchers has been converted into advanced paranoia by the business media's preference for bad news. Consider this headline in the Wall Street Journal: "Economy's Surge Stirs Questions About When Slowdown May Come".Share prices are driven to a six-year high by rising corporate profits and commentators trot out stories about bubbles and irrational exuberance, the latter a phrase used by then-chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Alan Greenspan to describe share prices--after which they doubled. Germany and Japan finally shake off their decades-long economic lethargy and show signs of recovery, and all talk is...

Despite a great deal of pessimism, the US economy is booming. Real GDP grew by 4.8% in the first quarter, while "core" real GDP (consumer spending plus fixed investment) expanded at a 6.4% annualized rate. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, durable goods new orders surged 2.8% in March and are up 9.6% in the past year. Sales of both new and existing homes exceeded expectations in March, while commercial and industrial loans have expanded at a 14.5% annual rate during the first three months of 2006. For April, Wal-Mart blew away expectations and reported 6.8% same-store sales increases.The reasons for...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed the barrier 11,000. The media has a way of describing this. We have put together a montage: Fox News Channel, ABC News, CBS News, CBS This Morning, CBS, NBC. Note here, there's a single word that all of these anchors and info babes and reporters used to describe the Dow breaking 11,000. CHRIS WALLACE: We certainly understand it to be an important psychological mark. REBECCA GOMEZ: It's a psychological milestone. MELLODY HOBSON: There's nothing magical about 11,000. It's more psychological. BOB SCHIEFFER: Wall Street reached a psychological milestone today....

The strong data on jobs, growth, and even house prices belie the naysayersTo paraphrase Bob Dylan, you don't need a Wall Street economist to know which way the economy is blowing. For weeks, the experts have worked themselves into a cold sweat worrying about inflation, aftereffects of the killer hurricanes, oil prices, avian flu, and the prospect of the red-hot housing market turning white cold. Rest easy. Things are nowhere near as bad as the worrywarts would have you believe, if recent bountiful economic data are any indication. Indeed, firms add-ed a rock-solid 215,000 jobs in November, the government reported...

December 05, 2005, 9:10 a.m. Bush Boom Continues Unabated The impressive GDP story is a tale of a tax cut. By Jerry Bowyer (The chart was here - please see article a NRO please) Last week, the growth of gross domestic product was revised upward for the third quarter from an above-average 3.8 percent to a robust 4.3 percent. This level of growth is higher than the averages for the last 10, 20, and 30 years, making it impressive even if it had not come in the face of high energy prices and a series of devastating natural disasters. In...

Will someone please explain why the Bush White House and the Republican Congress are not trumpeting this economic boom on a daily basis? Their polls are sagging, but the economy is soaring. This simply shouldn’t be.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. economic growth was much stronger last quarter than first thought as spending rose more than estimated, while divergent price data on Wednesday left economists puzzled over inflation pressures. Gross domestic product, a measure of all goods and services produced within U.S. borders, grew at a revised 4.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the fastest pace since the first three months of 2004, the Commerce Department said. Growth had initially been reported at 3.8 percent. The report also showed inflation was milder than first thought. A price gauge favored by the Federal Reserve -- personal...

RUSH: So Mr. Snerdley comes in today, folks, and he says, "This economy has to be humming." Well, there's no question that it's humming. His definition of a humming economy is he can't find an X-Box 360. He went out there and tried to find an X-Box 360, the new one. The base price is between three and four hundred dollars, and with other bundles thrown in there, it's between eight and nine hundred dollars. Some are listed now by a grand by resellers online because there's such a demand for these things. He can't find one. I said, "You...

Former GE Chairman and business management guru Jack Welch has some advice for President George W. Bush: Start bragging about the economy. Welch told Fox News Channel that President Bush has much to be proud of with regard to the economy, but he has to get out there and sell himself - and his accomplishments - to the American people to let them know about it. "President Bush put a tax bill through that supported capital formation and risk taking,” Welch said. "We’ve created 2 million jobs a year after the 9/11 attacks. That’s a remarkable accomplishment. Bush has to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of new U.S. homes jumped 6.5 percent to a record high in July, defying economists' expectations for a decline, as purchases soared in the Northeast and West and median prices dropped, a government report showed on Wednesday. The Commerce Department said new single-family home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.410 million units from a downwardly revised 1.324 million unit rate in June. The July sales pace was 27.7 percent higher than a year earlier. Economists had expected new home sales to drop to a 1.333 million unit pace from June's originally reported...

Better than expected. That is the headline being given to the progress of the US economy. Last year the deficit was a humiliating 3.6 per cent of gross domestic product. The deficit this year, new numbers suggest, will be 2.7 per cent of GDP - acceptable. The difference? Extra revenues. It seems federal revenues for this year will be $85bn (47bn Pounds) higher than anyone was predicting as recently as March. Growth, too, may be stronger than expected, remaining above 3 per cent. Unemployment? Some forecasters now believe it will dive deep into the mid-4 per cent range.These data are...

In July 207,000 jobs were created, above expectations, and the unemployment rate held steady at 5.0% Upward revisions for May and June as well.

Hiring around the country picked up slightly in June with employers adding 146,000 jobs — helping to push the unemployment rate down to 5 percent, the lowest in nearly four years. The latest snapshot of the nation's jobs climate, released by the Labor Department on Friday, supported the view of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his colleagues that the labor market continues to improve gradually. The modest payroll gain of 146,000 jobs in June was up from 104,000 net jobs added in May. Payroll growth for both April and May turned out to be better than the government previously...

Well, have you heard the news? "After three years of rising federal budget deficits, a surge of April tax receipts brought unexpected good news to fiscal policymakers -- the tide of government red ink appears to be receding. The Treasury Department this week reported..." This is how much money we're talking about. "The Treasury Department this week reported there would be a $54 billion swing from projected deficit to surplus in the April-to-June quarter, after an unanticipated gush of tax payments poured into the Treasury before the April 15 deadline. That prompted private forecasters to lower their deficit projections for...

Congressional Town Halls Elevating Social Security Discussion, Economic Indicators Reach Historic Thresholds And President Bush Makes Historic Trip ________________________________________________________________________________   Congressional Town Hall Meetings Elicit Praise For President Bush's Efforts To Strengthen Social Security:  The President's Positive Message Changes Perceptions On Social Security During Town Hall Events:   Pennsylvania Kerry Voter Jennifer Claus Converted On Social Security After Hearing Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) Speak: "I liked his idea of ownership... I was very pleased by the presentation. ... I feel the current system is stable, but if you do look at the number of people coming into the program and...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pace of U.S. worker productivity growth slowed at the end of 2004 and claims for jobless aid dipped last week, according to reports raising both job-growth hopes and inflation concerns. Separate reports on Thursday tempered the optimism as growth in the huge U.S. services sector cooled a bit last month while factory orders rose a mere 0.3 percent in December. Nonfarm business productivity, or worker output per hour, grew at an annual rate of just 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter, falling from the third quarter's 1.8 percent rate and the smallest advance since a drop...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Web search leader Google Inc. posted quarterly earnings on Tuesday that blew past expectations on strong Web search advertising, driving its share price up almost 10 percent to a record high. The earnings were seven times higher than a year earlier on revenue that doubled to more than $1 billion. The news also lifted shares of rival Internet companies Yahoo Inc. and Ask Jeeves Inc., setting the tone for a possible tech rally on Wednesday. "Our international businesses are essentially on fire," said Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, who added that Britain led growth, but that...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended the last day of 2004 slightly down on Friday, but the main U.S. indexes posted their second successive year of gains following a fourth-quarter rally. In light trading, a late flurry of profit-taking pulled the indexes lower, after a rebound in steel stocks had offered support earlier in the session. Shares of drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co., manufacturer of antidepressant drug Prozac, fell 1.3 percent to $56.75. The British Medical Journal said it has sent documents to U.S. regulators that it said appear to suggest a link between Prozac and suicidal behavior. The...