EconomicCrisis.US

The U.S. economy may have achieved a sustainable pace of growth that eases pressure on the Federal Reserve to buy more bonds while giving it time to fine tune how it informs the public about the outlook for interest rates.

“Recent economic data takes away some of the urgency for the need to engage in a new round of quantitative easing,” said Michael Feroli, a former Fed economist who is now chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. The Federal Open Market Committee “can say, ‘Let’s wait and see if this is going to build on itself.’”
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The dark clouds over the U.S. economy may finally be parting.

It wasn’t just the Dow’s 490-point jump to post its biggest one-day gain since March 2009.

Spend-happy holiday shoppers, an improving job market, and continued manufacturing growth all indicate things are on the right track, economists said.

“The fact that we seem to be gathering some momentum right now, that’s incredibly encouraging,” said Omair Sharif, a U.S. economist at RBS Securities.

Private companies created far more jobs than expected in November, which may bode well for Friday’s more comprehensive jobs report from the government.
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First, let’s consider what makes this time slightly different than previous times of unrest. The essential facts are that most Americans are suffering through the deepest economic depression since the 1930s. We barely avoided a complete economic collapse and may still see an economic collapse if the euro fails. With so many homes worth less than the loans against them, the American consumer economy is simply upside down. This is unique in our history — unprecedented home ownership with unprecedented loss of value. Second, the disparity in wealth between the top 1% and rest of American society is huge. Although wealth disparity has occurred in the past, this time around it is highly noticeable because of the media. There is also a complete social disconnect between the elite wealthy segment of society and everyone else. The very wealthy just do not understand the economic pain of the average American.
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Much has been made of the depth of the economic crisis facing the United States, and it should not be underestimated. But only about 30 percent of the trouble facing the U.S. today is economic — the U.S. economy, compared with all the other developed economies, is in the best structural and demographic shape to weather this storm and ultimately regain its health. But a cancer does exist: The real problem America faces is political, and once again today, it is on stark display.

The warring tribes of Capitol Hill rolled out their carefully prepared talking points over the weekend looking to ensure the other side got the blame for the failure of the congressional super committee on Monday. “The President was AWOL,” cried the GOP, “the Republicans sold their soul to the anti-tax lobby,” counter the Dems.
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