2004 May Be Banner Year for U.S. Economy

[itaintoveryet]

so says an article on the Netscape site.

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/pf/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1310&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20031229%2F055439485.htm&sc=1310&related=off

they are expecting big things in 2004; including jobs creation on the order of 100K+.

[Jack_Dawson]

1. If I maxed out my credit cards, I'd have a good year too

And then the next year, the bill would come.

[htuttle]

2. Are economists all Cubs fans now?

"Just wait until next year! You'll see!"

:eyes:

[itaintoveryet]

4. good one huttle

i never thought of it that way before.

[Liberal Veteran]

3. Wow...a whole 100k jobs? That'll only leave about 2.9 million to go.

It's gonna take a lot of job creation to make a difference.

[itaintoveryet]

5. sorry

i meant 100k+/month not in total.

[SoCalDem]

7. With the beef scare, lots of those fast food jobs will "go away"

The 100K per month type jobs are the part-time and low-end service jobs..

Jobs that are "family-sustaining" will never come back until the corporate greed and deception are dealt with..

[Cocoa]

8. Bush has already failed to deliver

Fact: In July 2003, the Counsel of Economic Advisors predicted that the President's latest round of tax cuts would produce 1,530,000 jobs would be created in the first five months. In fact, only 271,000 jobs were created over those five months for a cumulative shortfall of 1,259,000 jobs. — Economic Policy Institute

http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9654

And the jobs numbers were supposed to turn around in 2002 anyway. This latest prediction of Bush's success is just another guess, but even if it happens, it will be two years too late.

If you put any stock in this prediction of the future evidence of the success Bush has long been taking credit for, like it is real and present, then you are bound and determined to give Bush credit. Have fun!

[w4rma]

10. What's the median pay of those supposed future jobs? (n/t)

[catzies]

6. 'Banner' year? Which banner? Not 'Mission Accomplished' I hope.

Maybe the Bush Backdrop (banner) generator can help:

http://home.comcast.net/~freshlaundry/bush.html

[Cocoa]

11. lol!

Bush recently had a "Mission Accomplished" moment regarding the economy. He told Diane Sawyer "I'm satisfied with our progress."

Never mind that it contradicted with what he said seconds before, "I won't rest until everyone looking for a job has one."

I seriously hope the dems use the clip of him saying "I'm satisfied with our progress" in a TV ad. Poppy Bush lost mainly because he was perceived as out of touch with the economic problems.

[Emillereid]

9. If this is true, then I think we're looking at four more years

of the Bushit's regime.

What's with all the conflicting stories of late re: the economy. There's this story about 2004 being a banner year and yet for a few weeks we were inundated with stories of the dollar's impending crash and how Soros and Buffett were betting against the US dollar and stock market. What gives? Do economists just wake up in the morning and make this stuff out of whole cloth?

[Frodo]

14. There haven't really BEEN "conflicting stories of late"

The worst economic report lately has been "not AS GOOD as had been predicted". Virtually every leading indicator is up. Like personal spending last week was anticipated to go up .8% and only went up .4%


The "conflicting" stories you see here are really some of us hanging onto a thread of hope that things won't get substantially better in time for the election. Instead we should be pointing out (as a couple have on this thread) that things aren't nerely as good as they should be and there will come a reckoning for all of this spending.

That Soros story on the dollar is old. He's been betting against the dollar (and winning) for months now. Whether he still IS or not is unknown. The dollar doesn't look nearly as attractive a target at this level as it did early this year.

As for betting against the stock market? I hadn't heard that, but if he is then he's lost quite a bit more of his shirt than he'll make in currency trading... The S&P is up better than 37% since mid-March.



Are we looking at four more years? We COULD be if we don't get our act together and FAST... but a lot can happen in the next eleven months.

[dicknbush]

12. Dealing with Insomnia of late....

I am watching a program in the wee hours of the morning called "Ecconomics USA" This mornings show was talking about the Reagan tax cuts and how effective they were. Basically thye said the the the tax cuts were only half as effective as they werer immagined to be because the trade deficiit was so huge. More american money was going to overseas low paying jobs then staying in the US. Not unlike what is going on here today. I think we are going to be in for a severe infationary spiral towards the end of this decade the way thinbgs are set up right now. How do you make money in an infationary spiral?

[Frodo]

16. How to make money in a high inflation environment:

You own THINGS of value (Gold, real estate, etc) that go up in price at least as fast as rates in general. You DON'T have tons of cash sitting around devaluing. And, if you can afford it and are really comfortable with the stability of your income... you leverage those assets heavily (borrowing to buy them) since you'll pay back those loans with much "cheaper" dollars a few years from now.

But don't bet on that happening yet. I don't subscribe to the theory that the Fed has tamed the inflation beast, but they've come awful close... that Reagan deficit you were talking about didn't produce the rampant inflation you are expecting. The 4-5% we saw for a couple years during Bush the First's reign is hardly the kind of thing you dump your stock holdings to avoid. And while the deficit spending this go-round is HUGE... it isn't AS huge as Reagan's.

[Dr. Wu]

13. Can you imagine Dean calling for repeal of all tax cuts

in November if 2004 is a banner year for the economy?

The middle class is going to drop him like a hot potato.

[LunaC]

15. Not with the dollar in freefall.......n/t