Larry Kudlow is a reliable source of the good economic news that the media refuses to report. Here's some of it: (ellipsis mine)
The August jobs report should put to rest any fears that the economy is burning out. Following upwardly revised increases for June (134,000) and July (121,000), companies added 128,000 nonfarm payrolls last month. Meanwhile, the all-important but rarely mentioned household survey of people working gained by 250,000, sending the unemployment rate back to 4.7 percent from the July reading of 4.8 percent.The cult of the bear, fussing about a housing-related recession, has once more been proven wrong...
...Long-term jobs growth has moved to an all-time high of 145 million in the household survey and 136 million in nonfarm payrolls. Both measures are rising at about 1.5 percent, the average for jobs growth dating back to 1995. As for unemployment, at 4.7 percent it is well below the 5.1 percent long-run rate.
This suggests we are near full employment and that the economy is operating close to its full potential to grow. It’s still the greatest story never told.
A good companion piece to Kudlow is David R. Henderson's TCS article which takes the New York Times to task for cherry-picking and distorting wage statistics in order to portray the labor picture as worse than it is.
Five years of steady growth, low inflation, and low unemployment in the U.S. economy have left the Democrats without much to criticize except Wal-Mart, (hey, I didn't say it made sense.) Meanwhile, Europe's economies are limping along with twice the unemployment, less than half the growth rate and looming entitlement program disasters, and the American left would like us to emulate their statist model. And as to the reality that federal tax revenues are growing while taxes are being cut, Democrats are understandably speechless.
UPDATE: More on the NYT Labor Day article, and their own special brand of hypocrisy, also from TCS. (via IP)
Posted by dan at September 5, 2006 8:55 PM