Market Economy Continues to Grow - New England Patriots Forums

***PatsWickedPissah*** · 03-31-2006, 04:21 PM

Good news for everyone's 401Ks...

http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/31/mark...york/index.htm

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Blue chips slipped Friday, at the end of one of the best first quarters for the major gauges in years.
While concerns about interest rates are bound to remain in place next week, stocks could benefit from some early quarter and early April seasonal strength.
Personal income rose 0.3 percent in February, the government reported. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought it would rise 0.4 percent. Income rose 0.7 percent in January.

Personal spending rose 0.1 percent in February, versus forecasts for no change. Spending rose a revised 0.8 percent last month. The report also showed a mild inflationary environment. The "core" PCE price index, the report's inflation component, rose 0.1 percent, in line with estimates.

The University of Michigan's revised consumer sentiment index, released after the start of trade, rose to 88.9 from an earlier read of 86.7. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought it would rise to 86.9.

The Chicago PMI, a regional read on manufacturing, rose to 60.4 in March from 54.9 in February. Economists thought it would rise to 57.0.

***BelichickFan*** · 03-31-2006, 04:33 PM

I know my 401K is doing just fine which is why I also wonder about people sniping about corporate profits. Not everyone has a 401K but a large number of people do so those evil corporate profits help more than the CEOs these days.

***Patters*** · 03-31-2006, 04:37 PM

War and deficit spending have always been good for the economy, that's why they're so popular.

***PatsWickedPissah*** · 03-31-2006, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BelichickFan

I know my 401K is doing just fine which is why I also wonder about people sniping about corporate profits. Not everyone has a 401K but a large number of people do so those evil corporate profits help more than the CEOs these days.

No question that as a stockholder those CEO and inner circle comp packages are WAY over valued in my opinion, but like NFL player salaries they do reflect what the market will bear. No system, including govt regulated capatilism is perfect but our system is lots better for EVERYONE than those socalist paradises that Patters et. al. grow tumescent over.

***Harry Boy*** · 03-31-2006, 05:04 PM

The Sore Loser Democrats don't like to talk about the economy right now, Cheney shooting his pal in the face is more up their alley.

***BelichickFan*** · 03-31-2006, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry Boy

The Sore Loser Democrats don't like to talk about the economy right now, Cheney shooting his pal in the face is more up their alley.

Let him dwell in his misery, that what Democrats do best.

***BelichickFan*** · 03-31-2006, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patters

War and deficit spending have always been good for the economy, that's why they're so popular.

They may be pumping it a little bit but it's less fake than the boom years of Clinton which were totally fake thanks to the dot com boom.

The ecomomy is actually very good right now. Low unemployment, good profits, good productivity, strong hiring expectations for the rest of this year. Even knocking it down a little due to the way, it's strong right now and it's real.

***Patters*** · 03-31-2006, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry Boy

The Sore Loser Democrats don't like to talk about the economy right now, Cheney shooting his pal in the face is more up their alley.

Mr. Redundancy, there are a lot of things that Democrats like to talk about with regard to the economy: the massive debt, the fact that a huge part of the debt is owned China and Saudi Arabia; the weak dollar; a stock market that is still struggling to get back to the levels Clinton left us at; high oil prices; and so on. Of course, people like many of us here are doing well because we are old enough to have invested during the good times and already own real estate, but unless things change, life is going to be difficult for today's young, given the high price of real estate, health care, and the national obsession with consumption rather than saving.

***Patters*** · 03-31-2006, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BelichickFan

They may be pumping it a little bit but it's less fake than the boom years of Clinton which were totally fake thanks to the dot com boom.

The dot com boom was real. Everyone jumped on the bandwagon, and most of did quite well, thank you, if they weren't day traders and diversified properly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BelichickFan

The ecomomy is actually very good right now. Low unemployment, good profits, good productivity, strong hiring expectations for the rest of this year. Even knocking it down a little due to the way, it's strong right now and it's real.

Yes, the economy is doing well, but let's not live in a fantasy world and pretend the fundamentals are all sound. We need to get our deficit spending under control, as well as our health care costs. If you took out of our economy for billions that Bush is pumping into Iraq, our economy would not look quite as strong. Remember, Reagan did the same thing with regard to deficit spending, and when he left office, we entered a recession that ultimately sunk Bush I.

I'm not saying Bush's economic policy is a failure, but I am saying it carries with it some risks that will be difficult to manage going forward.

shirtsleeve · 03-31-2006, 05:23 PM

Gotta disagree on this one. This is a consumer driven, housing bubble (biggest bubble in history, dwarfs the dot com bubble) inflated economy. Our REAL economy, the industrial one, is long gone. This is just another house of cards waiting to fall. The housing ATM is about out of cash, and with rising interest rates stifling inflation on housing prices any further, I see a BIG crash coming.....