The New York Times:

An unexpected retreat in the United States' demand for imports trimmed the trade deficit in March to a six-month low, the government reported today, creating a far brighter picture of the economy than previous data suggested.

Which is good, except that the drop in imports is fueled entirely by smaller consumer goods, like textiles and toasters. Petrolium imports are up, of course. So basically, people are doing less day-to-day spending. And as much as I have a general philisophical objection to how much useless crap we buy, I doubt there's suddenly been some moral revolution in America, and we've suddenly decided to start saving money and giving more to the Salvation Army or PBS. Nor does it seem likely that Americans have suddenly decided to save more for retirement, though you never know what Bush's 60-city tour might have done to our sense of social security and Social Security.

So that really leaves two possible reasons we could be spending less. First, we're making less, and second, we're spending a larger percentage of our income on things like rent or Visa payments. Neither is the end of the world, of course, but hardly the unqualified good news the Times story would make it seem.

Of course, I'm not an economist. Neither Brad DeLong nor Max Sawicky have discussed this. When I find more on this, I'll link.

And whatabout Jim West, Mayor of Spokane, WA who got caught hiring young gay men he met on line for city jobs (cj instead of bj)? Jay Leno claims that West stated (supposedly in his defense) that "I have never masturbated in my office." I guess happy days AREN'T here again. GUY

Posted by  Anonymous @ 11:14 PM

 

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