The Great American Economy

Courtesy of Larry Kudlow, who always offers some helpful perspective after major market selloffs and excessive negativism about the economy:

Have I told you how strong the American economy really is? We had a market scare yesterday. Please ignore it. Pessimists and declinists are out there all the time. Please ignore them.

A few key points: once again lower tax-rates have worked to promote faster growth, increase jobs, and raise equity values. No surprise here. It's called supply-side.

Want some data points? Consumers are spending and companies are producing at a 4 percent rate. Balanced and excellent. Wages and salaries are up 5 percent. Strong. Unemployment at 5.2 percent and weekly jobless claims just above 300,000. Strong. Business cap-ex? 14 percent. Strong. S&P profits? 23 percent. Really strong. Worried about inflation? Today's chained CPI ex food and energy? Only 1.9 percent. Right where we want it. Low. Long-term interest rates for housing, mortgages and investors? Low. The fabled Treasury yield curve? It's positively sloped, so there's no recession out there. But it has flattened by half, meaning inflation worries are getting, well, less worrisome.

What's wrong with this picture? Not much. It takes a lot of work to be a nitpicking negativist who never believes in business or free markets. Don't even listen to 'em.

He's right.