Well, this is embarassing. The New York Times – yes, that old liberal rag — has a story up on its website admitting the worst possible thing about the economy: things are not as bad as the Dems in Denver want you to think. GDP growth this past quarter has been much stronger than predicted – 3.3% this past quarter, rather than 1.9%. There is no depression in sight, despite all that gloom, doom, and discussion of a U.S. filled with homeless former middle-class citizens standing in breadlines — which has been a bit much to stomach all week.
Just last night Joe Biden told us how terrible it is that the Bush/McCain administration has failed to offer handouts and greater redistribution of your money to those in need, an expanded pool, in face of the unprecedented economic decline about in the land. A sea of well-fed, well-hotelled delegates nodded in shared sympathy with the legions of new apple sellers and starving orphans in the streets.
Or, maybe, the reality looks more like the one depicted in the Times:
The economy expanded faster from April to June than originally thought, the government said on Thursday, catching many economists off-guard and cheering investors on Wall Street.
Gross domestic product rose at a 3.3 percent clip in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said, a significant jump over the original estimate of 1.9 percent growth. G.D.P., the broadest measure of the nation’s economic activity, is considered a good barometer of America’s economic health.
On Wall Street, the markets surged on the strength of the report. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 190 points, or 1.65 percent in afternoon trading, and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 1.16 percent.
The revised G.D.P. figure suggests resilience in the economy, especially compared with the anemic 0.9 percent growth rate from January to March, and a contraction in the final three months of 2007. Still, spending by American consumers stayed relatively soft, despite the infusion of the government’s tax stimulus program. Corporate profits remained weak.
So, consumers are not spending wildly. That’s bad? Aren’t we for saving?
Let’s see if Obama’s speechwriters have incorporated this new view of the — yes, fundamental health of the economy — into his speech tonight. Of course they can’t. To be a political messiah, there must be political and economic tragedy from which to deliver us. Surging financial markets are as bad, for the success of the Democratic nominee, as successful surges elsewhere.