More Silent Boom

NRO Financial Editors, via the Corner, bring us these exerpts telling of a U.S. economy that is growing like gangbusters - and stronger than it ever did during the so-called "Clinton boom":

From Brian Wesbury: "'Core' GDP (consumption + fixed investment) increased 4.3% in Q3 and is up 4.5% in the past year. Despite widespread pessimism about hurricanes, energy prices, consumer debt, trade deficits, and housing bubbles, the economy continues to grow at a remarkable pace. This is because tax rates remain low, productivity continues to accelerate, and Fed policy is still accommodative."

From Mike Darda: "Since an inventory drawdown pulled growth down by more than half a percentage point, and the effects of the September storm-related outages probably knocked another half of point off growth, underlying output actually has been running closer to 5% in real terms. Strong underlying trends in the capital-to-labor ratio and corporate profits suggest that both income and corporate spending should continue at a strong pace moving into 2006. This is confirmed by data on tax receipts, which show that tax revenues grew at the fastest pace since 1982 in FY05." [emphases added]

Wheeeeooo. Who knew things were that good?

Well, the President for one, I would assume. So why isn't he shouting this news from the rooftops and taking credit for it?

I guess it would be immodest, but what has humility to do with success in politics? Besides, with the other side preaching perpetual gloom & doom into the resulting vacuum, the public is inevitably buying into the wholly fabricated pessimism. And it is possible to take credit for good times without Clintonoid shamelessness - just say that the American people have been set free from high tax rates and they did the rest. That's how Ronald Reagan did it, after all; and it has the additional virtue of being spot-on true.

It's a lot like evangelism - how will people know the truth if nobody tells it to them?