WHY THE ECONOMY COULD...POP!

摘要

Is Easy To Imagine That Because Washington Is Mired In Political Gridlock, The Rest Of The Country Is Stuck Too. This May Explain Why Surveys Show Deep Pessimism Over The Nation's Economic Outlook. Such Sentiment Made Sense After The Scary Financial Collapse Of 2008, But It Doesn't Anymore. In Fact, After Five Years of struggling against headwinds triggered by that collapse, the U.S. is making a surprisingly strong comeback. It's the great untold story of the summer of 2013: a combination of cyclical recovery forces and uniquely American strengths are revving up growth. The U.S. economic outlook is as strong asithasbeenin more than a decade. Yes, too many Americans are out of work and have been that way for too long. And yes, household incomes, adjusted for inflation, are still below 2007 levels. Indeed, this is the country's biggest job— to repair labor markets and get incomes moving up again. The U.S. needs growth in order to make that happen, and that's where the news is good. Confounding so many skeptics, the U.S. is actually shifting into higher gear. Growth for this year's second quarter, just reported at 1.7%, beat expectations but is well below the rate we should see at this time next year. Indeed, the Federal Reserve Board, not known for going out on a limb, recently raised its 2014 forecast for real growth to the 3%-to-3.5% range. And the country will likely see two to three more years of good growth, which would produce millions of new jobs and begin to raise incomes. This is one reason the U.S. stock market recently reached all-time highs.