Things Are Better Than You Think

In The Daily Beast, Zachary Karabell writes on a theme that we’ve been discussing recently — namely, that things are better than you might think. Given all the mayhem of the past 12 months, the U.S. economy has so far dodged all the predictions of its demise.

Make no mistake, the economy is far from strong. But compared to the rhetoric, we’re not that bad.

In the last months of 2011, every major indicator of economic health in the United States showed marked improvement: manufacturing, sentiment, holiday sales, e-commerce, inflation, and employment. Even government is shrinking, a fact that Republican candidates strenuously avoid and which Democrats uncomfortably skirt because it means large-scale government-employee layoffs; there are nearly 400,000 fewer government workers now than there were at the end of 2010. Yet there are more people employed overall. Wages have not increased for years but nor is income decreasing the way it was. In almost every way, the U.S. economy is stable, which is a far cry from robust and an equally far cry from dismal.

I always find it interesting that people get angry when you tell them there’s good news. Check out some of the loony comments below the column.

Posted by on December 28th, 2011 at 10:25 am


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