I had a debate at my school today about how the U.S. economy is going downhill. Trillions of dollars of debt, lots of missing jobs, illegal immigration, the usual wash. People whine and cry about it to me all the time, and I was angry because I couldn't really prove them wrong. So, here's the proof I needed when that was happening.
To get you an idea of the document we're looking at, we're looking at Ted Kulongoski (D-OR) and the Office of Economic Analysis' Oregon Economic and Revenue Forecast. You must be thinking "Ticker, you've got problems if you think the OREGON Forecast release is going to have U.S. economy data!" Well, you thought wrong. Government releases like this aim to compare with other states, and that means the U.S. too.
In Recent Developments and Outlook for Oregon Export Markets, it sums it up. Let me remind you, one of the people who dislikes Bush as much as you probably do, approved this and helped release it.
"The U.S. economy, the biggest engine of growth for the world economy, has been expanding near its potential for quite some time. Capacity utilization is high and the labor market is tight. Still, the inflation rate is only a touch above the Fed tolerance level." In other words, the United States' economy is doing just fine. We're in a war, which explains the inflation rate, but even after sending more troops we're still in a good position. Let me put quite some time on the table, which may mean since 2000 for all you naysayers.
And guess what? We're still trillions of dollars in debt. But apparently, to Kulongoski, we're doing fine. And he dislikes this war too.
Let's see where the economy is failing. "The U.S. economy is slowing a bit due to slowing housing and housing-related sectors and the struggling domestic auto industry." I don't even need to read the next part of the paragraph. It's not only the war. It's the residential and automotive industries. Learn to look at all your evidence, kids.
"Ticker, what about the future?" Our merchandise export rate increased 14.7 percent in 2005 and 2006, and the forecast predicts that it will continue at the same rate.
So, conformists, this is what it's like when you go along with the crowd in politics; your opinion becomes wrong.
