by Rick Manning
Below are a few good news economic stories you might have missed since the media created recession fears have been negated by the robust U.S. economy.
The August jobs data showing more people employed than at any time in history with more than a million more job openings than unemployed people in the country effectively ended, in many people’s minds, the notion that recession is right on the horizon.
The even better news is that economic data coming out from the Federal Reserve this week blew away expectations for U.S. manufacturing output, beating the anticipated 0.2 percent increase by a whopping 200 percent, coming in at 0.6. The D.C. pundit class has been speculating that manufacturing output is being harmed by the China trade war. The perpetually wrong talking heads would be spinning over the August manufacturing output numbers, if they bothered to report them.
And all of us who became addicted to checking our credit scores based on the onslaught of television ads with catchy jingles from about a decade ago will be pleased to note that CNBC reported last week that the nation’s average household’s FICO score has hit an all-time high of 706. In simple terms, this means that people are paying their bills, not something that happens when the economy is falling apart heading into a recession.
Oh, by the way, the much vaunted “interest rate inversion” of the 10-year and 2-year treasuries which all the smart people say is a red flashing recession signal, un-inverted after a few days to virtually zero fanfare.
And this is not to mention that inflation remains very low at both the consumer and producer levels and the average American is making more money than ever before with the average annual household income up over $61,000, more than a million households have moved up into the middle class and 6.7 million people are off of food stamps since President Trump took office.
So, to sum up, there are more than a million more jobs available than job seekers, manufacturing output grew rapidly in August, the nation’s credit score has never been higher, people are making and keeping more of their money in their paychecks, while depending upon the federal government for food assistance significantly less, and more people are employed than at any time in history.
For those who have been actively rooting for an economic downturn in the hopes of ousting President Donald Trump in 2020, this has to be the worst recession ever.
Realizing this, can it be any surprise that the New York Times has reverted back to making up stories about Supreme Court Justices. Maybe there’s another Russian dead-end lead to chase down. After all, the real economic conditions in the country are just too darn good to talk about to their Trump Derangement Syndrome afflicted audience, so why bother with reality?
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Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
