Awful needs no scare-quotes. It's inflation. I've warned that "inflation's coming" right here on NB ever since I arrived, and it's about time the news media noticed the obvious, even if they WON'T notice massive central bank intervention in an ostensibly "free" gold market...
JMR

Rally online with fans of Dr. Ron Paul.

These libs are besides themselves with their wishful thinking. If the economy takes a downturn (which it can do), this only "proves" that capitalism doesn't "work". Thus, they can haul out their old chestnuts of wealth re-distribution and New Deals.

The economy is like the climate. Ups and downs, with an overall pattern of stability. Only the libs are dishonest/stupid enough to isolate a segment of performance, and screech that it is something in of itself, ignoring the bigger picture.

Interesting.. since they are the ones who accuse conservatives of being small-minded and have tunnel vision.

"...and we take no pleasure in reporting it..."

Methinks the liberal doth protest too much.

Forget 911, I dial 9MM.

all signs point to a bear market coming, 

"but  no i love bush this can't be"

the market isn't partisan.  you can explain away the shrinking dollar that we will be using as tp pretty soon, 

you can try to explain why we raise our debt ceiling rather then try to slow down spending, 

oil 100

inflation rising.

jobs may have been added but americans are getting poorer cause of our plumetting currency. 

if tax cuts (which i'm all for) work so well then why are we printing off money like fools and borrowing money like never before?

the economy isn't great, 

The true liberal view in the late 90's, of the shape of the economy was clearly and loudly expressed by economists and others whom the MSM has a lot of respect for. Predictions were loud and clear prior to the economic turmoil, and the history of the event was well documented after the crash.

 However during that period of time, in spite of the overwhelming evidence of an impending doom and gloom, with a Democrat [Clinton - but it doesn't matter who], the MSM pounded ahead all through the elecltion cycle of 2000 as if nothing had happened (the historic stock market crash of March, and all of the fallout from it), the MSM pushed ahead with blinders on. Nothing would get in the way of the agenda to elect Al Gore. 

The MSM continued to push Al Gore and the Democrats on their economic record. The end of the decade was also marked heavily by the CA energy crisis, the Intafada, one of the world's most deadly wars and genocides unfolding in the DR Congo. Sierra Leone was the location of another. Afghanistan had been violently been taken over by the Taliban (w/Pakistan's assistance). Chechnya was all over the news. Clinton's much touted genocide in Kosovo? No evidence had been found of the claims he had hyped. N. Korea was cheating on the Clinton/Carter deal. Iraq was unraveling; US bombing had escalated immensely for 2 straight years, and Clinton was loosing support for the Sanctions Regime.

But perhaps none described the fear better of how the economy would play out, and from the MSM's point of view [citizens would suffer], than the adored by the left liberal (socialist) economist Dean Baker (often on the news since 2001 to bash Bush economics).

Everything he, and so many more, wrote about and warned about, these same economic collapse mania media figures today, were silent about back then -- had to put the Democrats in power. Misc. excerpts, Dean Baker of CEPR:

March, 2000) The main feature of the 'new economy' is a stock market bubble of unprecedented magnitude. When the bubble bursts, the new economy will just be a bad memory. The inflated stock market has created enormous distortions in the economy, the ramifications of which will only be apparent when stock prices return to more normal levels.

(March, 2001) The nation's political leaders chose to ignore the stock market bubble and instead focused their attention on distant and relatively minor problems like potential shortfalls in the Social Security trust fund in 30 or 40 years or the reappearance of budget deficits in a decade or two.

As a result, millions of families have seen their dreams of a secure retirement or their children's college education vanish with the stock market bubble. The level of negligence of the nation's political leaders in ignoring the stock bubble exceeds anything since the days of Herbert Hoover."...

[..]

(Oct, 2001) "The first step in dealing with the current recession is to recognize clearly its cause. On this point, there can be little ambiguity. The cause of the recession was the collapse of the stock market bubble."

"The decision by the Federal Reserve Board and the Clinton Administration not to take any actions to try to limit the run-up of the stock bubble was a mistake that the nation will suffer from for many years to come."

"Even the most cursory review of the data shows that the "new economy" was mostly hype..

[..]

..At the individual level, millions of households now find themselves with insufficient savings to pay for their retirement or their children's education."

"The stock market bubble created a huge amount of unpredicted wealth, which has quickly dissipated. Millions of families have been hurt as a result."..

[..]

(Nov. 2000) The Costs of the Stock Market Bubble"

"This pushed the savings rate almost to zero. It also led to an enormous buildup of household debt."..."this paper shows the extent of the over-valuation to be in the range of $8-13 trillion. An over-valuation in the stock market of this magnitude is going to have very serious consequences for the rest of the economy."

For a very interesting read which clearly explains, from a liberal, that Bush inherited a disaster - not a booming economy with surpluses as far as the eye could see, Bursting Bubbles -Why the economy will go from bad to worse.

It's interesting to note, although one can share a few of Baker's long term concerns, how poorly he predicted how the Bush economy