October 15, 2004
PEACE AND PROSPERITY:
Economy on Track as Retail Sales Jump (Alister Bull, 10/15/04, Reuters)
A surprisingly big climb in U.S. retail sales in September and a larger-than-expected gain in underlying producer prices bolstered hopes for an economic revival and views the Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates.A Commerce Department report on Friday showed U.S. retail sales rose by 1.5 percent in September, propelled by the sharpest jump in auto sales in nearly three years.
Wall Street had expected a 0.7 percent gain, following a revised 0.2 percent fall in August that was initially reported as a 0.3 percent decline.
The economy keeps growing and al Qaeda keeps shrinking--hard to get much better than that. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 15, 2004 11:31 AM
Gee, and doncha know we'll hear plenty about this positive market move in the MSM? They report it so begrudgingly it's almost funny.
Posted by: DL Meadows at October 15, 2004 12:08 PMAs this blog, the belmont club and numerous others argue consistently, the GWOT is going quite well, with Iraq making clear, if somewhat unsteady, progress.
The economy is possibly the best it's ever been - it's really fantastic (check out http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109763214580043832,00.html for a concise list of remarkable statistics or http://greatguys.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_greatguys_archive.html#109770206789574148 if you're not a wsj subscriber).
The two things Americans care about the most and MSM almost completely ignores it.
It will be interesting to see how and if MSM changes their tune if Kerry becomes president. Will they start reporting how wonderful everything is? What if then falls apart? If the economy is still pretty good for the first two years and then falls apart will they still blame it on the Bush tax cuts, citing a delay? If terrorism increases after a couple of years, will MSM claim it's because Bush stirred the hornets nest? Will anybody still believe MSM at that point?
It will all be very interesting to watch.
Posted by: Bret at October 15, 2004 1:36 PMYup. Best economy in 20 years, as I hear it. I also heard that average incomes have increased, but median incomes have decreased for the last four years. What's the deal with that? Aren't they the same thing? No matter, this economy is ging strong, no other way to spin it.
And we're killing all those Al Queada that Saddam was in cahoots with. Good job! Even though some broke into the Green Zone and blew up some folks, there definitely haven't been any mistakes made. Nope, no way.
So true, hard to get much better.
Posted by: Jimmy at October 15, 2004 4:21 PMJimmy:
If your goal is no mistakes you're in the wrong world.
Posted by: oj at October 15, 2004 4:41 PM