The biggest news this week on the US economy comes today as the Commerce Department announces that orders for durable goods excluding transportation jumped by 2.8%, the most since the recession began in December 2007. Other reports this week including Leading Indicators and Home sales reported this week further bolstered the view that the economy is healing.  

Globalization and productivity have all but neutralized inflation.  Profits in the US continue to surge while analysts play catch-up.  Global economic growth looks healthy as well among the G6 countries.  Earnings in Japan and Europe outpace analysts’ expectations just as they do here.  And the developing ‘BRIC’ countries; Brazil, Russia, India, and China are ablaze with growth rates as high as 10%.  

Don’t’ expect it from Washington. America’s politicians are rushing headlong into socialism faster than at any time in our young history. We who send the ‘revenues’ to Washington know all too well the cost of the last massive rush toward that cowardly form of government. ‘Entitlements’ such as social security, medicare, and medicade are in truth on pace to swamp our country’s economy in the coming decades. The tactics used by Democrats to pass “Healthcare Reform at any price” with their secrecy, unprecedented vote-buying, and outright intimidation, have made it abundantly clear to most American citizens that absolute power has indeed corrupted absolutely.

The American consumer is coming back. Sales at US retailers grew a surprising .3% in February according to a Commerce Department report released this morning, but the two previous months were revised downward. Excluding autos, February sales rose .8%, also surpassing expectations. Economists expected sales to fall .2% due to bad weather across the country.