Economy may be heading for less sunny days

WASHINGTON - After years of talking about the Goldilocks economy — not too hot and not too cold — all of a sudden it appears the little rascal just got mugged by the three bears. While the economy began the year growing at a strong pace, activity seems to have hit the skids in the spring.

Factory orders fell in April. The five-year housing boom is cooling, with home sales falling and price gains slowing. In the biggest shocker of all, the government reported Friday that businesses created just 75,000 new jobs in May — 100,000 fewer than expected.

If the onslaught of weaker economic data was not bad enough, there also are signs that long-dormant inflation may be starting to be a problem, and not just in the pain from $3 per gallon gasoline.

The relentless rise in crude oil to above $70 per barrel seems to be starting to trigger price problems outside of energy. The core rate of inflation, excluding food and energy, is now above the 2 percent upper limit favored by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060604/ap_on_bi_ge/cloudy_economy

Figures tell lies. They're just wrong. This is just a normal up and down cycle, a little blip in the big picture, that's all.

:sarcasm:

I feel very bad for the people who will be hurt by the economy slowing down. I've felt things haven't truly been good for a long time. For months, Bush and his Gestapo have been printing money and forcing it out as fast as they can, fudging the economic indexes and facts in an attempt to prop up a stagnant economy.

But the fact is, this will only work for a time, and then the pendulum will begin to swing in the other direction. This is beginning now, and it couldn't come at a better time, with elections just around the corner. By November things should be quite bleak. I hope voters keep this in mind as they head to the polls, and vote out every last Republican up for election!

High gas prices, soaring interest rates, and a slow economy are pure suicide for the party in charge.

Not when they are fighting for God, guns, and against Mexkins, terrists, gays, and flag burning hippies!

The sheeple go for the really important stuff everytime.

fill up their pickup trucks, SUVs, and motorcycles. That hits them where it hurts, and they understand that better than anything.

Sacrifice is something others should do, not them. Fighting gay rights, illegals, and terra is one thing, but when you can't afford to go fishin' or dirt bikin' on the weekends, that's another matter entirely!

:rofl:

population growth, yet the unemployment rate went down. guess that means were not counting ~250k people because they were dropped of the count due to expired benefits?

It can't get much worse in Michigan, frankly.

"the Clinton recession" (Which they try to backdate to early 2000, but it really started 12/13/2000) . . . are they now going to accept blame for the new recession (since we are happily sloughing our way out of the current one?

I doubt it . . .

and wages are not going up. Living a life of luxury since birth * can't begin to realize how the other half lives. Myself, I'd love to see * lose everything he has and have to live in the gutter. Then he might change his tune. But this will never happen.