We're definitely making progress, but we admittedly still have a long way to go to get back to something called normal. That said, we can't finish what we don't start, and we've started. So now it's time to accelerate.
Here's what Economic news all points on way: up, slightly has to say in its summary of today's economic news:
"A stream of modestly positive news on the U.S. economy released Thursday puts to rest — at least for another day — the fears that the economy is crumbling.
The slew of economic indicators all pointed in roughly the same
direction: Up, slightly. Consumer confidence was up, hiring was up,
manufacturing activity was up, and construction spending was up.
The only things that were down were layoffs and inflationary pressures. And that’s just what we like to see.
The best news in Thursday’s reports came from the manufacturing sector,
which has slowed noticeably in recent months. The two reports from
company purchasing managers showed that the factory sector is still
growing, perhaps not as robustly as we’d hope, but it is growing.
The Institute for Supply Management and Markit purchasing managers’
indexes were both essentially unchanged from September, at levels that
indicate a modest expansion.
Read manufacturing grows a little faster in October. . . .
The dark cloud in the ISM report was the drop in export orders, a consequence of the global slowdown.
Consumers continued to see the glass as increasingly half full. The
consumer confidence index reached the highest level since February 2008,
led by a brighter view of employment growth.
Read consumer-confidence gauge highest since 2008.
That optimistic outlook was confirmed by the ADP employment report
(which showed a 158,000 gain in private-sector jobs in October) and in
the weekly unemployment benefits (which dipped to 363,000).
Read ADP: 158,000 private-sector jobs added in October
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will chime in on Friday with its October
employment report. Economist surveyed by MarketWatch are looking for
about 120,000 more jobs in October, with the unemployment rate ticking
back up to 7.9% from 7.8%.
See our economic calendar and forecasts.
None of the economic indicators released on Thursday, or over the past
few months for that matter, point to a booming economy. But they don’t
point to a bust either.
The best we can say is that the economy is growing at an agonizingly slow pace. Just as it has been for a while."
Summing Up
At least we're growing again consistently, and my bet is that we'll continue to do so for many years to come.
While we have problems galore, we also have reasons galore to be optimistic about our future.
This is the greatest self governing country in the history of the world, and our problems will be solved with common sense MOM based solutions. That's because it really is We the People's MOM in play and at jeopardy.
When the election is over next Tuesday and the fiscal cliff has been averted soon thereafter (although it won't seem soon), we'll focus on getting things fixed in our economy. And that's all that's required, because our economic issues, while not easy to fix, are indeed simple ones.
My bet is that we will begin to turn away from the unaffordable and unpaid for welfare entitlement society we've been expanding continuously since the mid-1930s.
We'll also begin to get serious about such things as education, worldwide competitiveness, energy independence, debt and deficits management and place a renewed emphasis on robust private sector led economic growth.
And we'll do that regardless of who is elected President next week. The election year rhetoric will finally end, and the hard work will begin in earnest.
After all, we have 80 years of increasing socialism to first stabilize and then begin to unwind.
So that's what we'll do as America's best days, as always, are ahead of us and not behind us.
At least that's my bet. Sound too good to be true? Not to me.
Thanks. Bob.
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