Is the Economy Looking Just a Little Too Rosy?

Before Saturday’s confirmation vote, I’d raised concerns here that a rejection of Kavanaugh might unsettle the nation politically and economically, ultimately reversing Trump’s undeniably positive effect on the economy and the stock market. With Kavanaugh confirmed, perhaps it’s time to flip the argument around with the observation that things looks just a little too rosy to last. Unemployment is at its lowest levels since the 1960s, wages are finally starting to rise, and the new Nafta agreement could help ease global trade tensions while jump-starting tired appendages of the U.S. economy. It’s even possible that the Democrats’ embarrassing failure to stop Kavanaugh will result in significant Republican gains in November, helping to solidify Trump’s aggressively pro-business agenda.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

What could possibly go wrong? Pundits could be pardoned for seeming not to care. It is in their nature to validate the popular wisdom and to tell us what they think we want to hear. This implies not only that they will always be wrong at important turning points, but that the sunnier their disposition, and therefore the more optimistic their predictions, the closer we are to the bear market that will end these good times practically overnight.

For what it’s worth, when I tuned briefly to some TV business shows Sunday morning, one commentator wondered aloud “How high can this economy go”? The response from a co-panelist was predictable, but also unsettling to those of us who have been students of bull and bear cycles for decades: “It’s not going to be over any time soon.” We can only hope that this will prove to be the case. Regardless, it behooves us to take with a grain of salt the giddy pronouncements we are certain to hear from economic pundits as long as stocks continue to rise.

  • none October 8, 2018, 9:13 am

    Columbus Day was first designated a federal holiday in 1937, in part as a way of recognizing Italian-American heritage. In 1971, it was moved from Oct. 12 to the second Monday in October. However, Columbus Day is not celebrated widely across the U.S., with just under half of the 50 states treating it as a paid holiday for their employees, according to the Council of State Governments. At least a handful of states and some local governments have chosen different names for the federal holiday, such as as Indigenous People’s Day.

    “If I were a Native American, I would mark October 12, 1492, as a black day on my calendar.”

    De Las Casas spent the rest of his life trying to protect the helpless native people. But after a while, there were no more natives to protect. Experts generally agree that before 1492, the population on the island of Hispaniola probably numbered above 3 million. Within 20 years of Spanish arrival, it was reduced to only 60,000. Within 50 years, not a single original native inhabitant could be found.

    “Everything always stays the same because everything is always changing.”

    America is again changing and this is how it takes place, the changing of the tide is seen though the changing whims of history.

    The next generation (20 years) we will see America change as before, heroes will be dethrone such as the Founding Fathers and street signs name after Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Mandela be taken down. Statures of the Old Southern Confederacy today is just the start, soon to be replace with the next new hero’s of the great American Experience.

    The Constitutional Republic will end in America, and America will become a Democracy.

    Have a great day Rick.