Missing The Boom, The Duping of the American People

To read and listen to the leftist MSM, one would think that the economy is in a shambles. You can read the same nonsense on the leftist blogs and of course, any web site that has the DNC's stamp of approval. The facts, do not bear any of this out, though the American people have been duped, by these distortions, half-truths and in some cases, outright lies. Investor's Business Daily points out some of the facts, that do not fit into the agenda's of the aforementioned groups.

"So before the data are spun beyond recognition by others, let's recount the good news: Since May 2003, when President Bush's tax cuts became law, the U.S. has created 4.7 million jobs. Payrolls have now expanded for 30 straight months. The jobless rate, though up a tick at 4.8%, is still near its five-year low.

Worker pay is also on the increase. Average weekly earnings rose 3.5% last month from a year earlier — the best gain in more than four years.

Last summer, we all were fretting about the economic impacts of higher interest rates, surging energy prices and Hurricane Katrina. But over the last year, including the hurricane season, monthly job gains have averaged 197,000 -— more than enough to sop up the 130,000 to 150,000 monthly growth in the U.S. labor force.

Based on the continued job growth and powerful gains in retail spending, most analysts now expect GDP to jump at least 4.5% in the first quarter and 3% for all of 2006 — even as the Federal Reserve continues to tighten credit.

In spite of all the great news, Americans remain strangely downbeat. A Gallup Poll taken earlier this year found just 38% who viewed the economy as "excellent" or "good" — down from 46% at the start of the last recession.

Our own IBD/TIPP Polls have shown sharp drops in economic optimism and consumers' six-month outlook. (Results of our March survey are due Tuesday.)

No doubt about it, the economy keeps powering along. Yet many Americans seem to think it's all a mirage and are sold on the idea that these are the worst of times.

Why the gloom? Much of it, no doubt, stems from misreporting by the media. Against the backdrop of surging payrolls, for example, we keep seeing story after story, in print and on TV, about job "losses."

A recent study by the Media Research Center bears this out. It looked at TV news coverage of jobs in 2005 -— 151 stories in all - carried on all three major networks.

This, mind you, was a year that saw the creation of 2 million new jobs, the addition of $350 billion to gross domestic product and an increase of $2 trillion in the value of household financial assets.Yet more than half of the networks' job reports focused on losses, not gains -— a picture that wasn't just distorted, but wrong."

I, for one, am getting sick and tired of the MSM pontificating on the public's right to know. The American people do have the right to know, we deserve the facts from the media, not spin and distortions. - Sailor