Reagan's famous question can now be asked of the Bu$hCo Administration/Regime. Are you better off now than you were 6 years ago? Do you believe the new Bu$hCo announcement that the unemployment rate is down to 4.6? Do you agree that job creation of 75,000 this month is helpful, as Bush claims? Do you believe any of the government statistics about the economy? Are you concerned that the government has stopped telling us how much money it is printing (the M3 money supply) since March, 2006? Are you satisfied about the way the economy is being managed? Are you confident that Bu$hCo can prevent a major economic downturn or recession? Can you believe that we have gone 6 years without median income growth, that we just went through a "jobless recovery," that many people are working part-time, have lost their health benefits, or have taken a wage cut?
The housing boom, it appears, is over. Housing prices are declining, and more and more Americans are losing their homes. This is one of the main reasons why the Federal Reserve Board is hesitant to raise interest rates to curb inflation. They are worried because they know the American savings rate is down to zero, and many Americans are heavily in debt.
It is likely that the stock markets will "trade sideways" this summer, and that there will be a significant downturn in September/October, which is when stocks often have their biggest crashes. We have just seen a 10% correction in the stock markets, but there may be an even larger correction coming at the end of the summer. A lot of people have taken a big hit, and they are not going to earn back what they lost any time soon, as the world follows the lead of the U.S., which is in serious economic trouble.
Both the new Chair of the Federal Reserve and the new Treasury Secretary are in deep doo-doo, and have few options. The last two years of Bu$hCo may be disastrous.