The Scoot Inn
Is Economy Really Improving?
RECEIVED Fri., Dec. 5, 2003
One of the front page stories from the Tuesday, Dec. 2, American-Statesman was about economic recovery – manufacturing up with some additional jobs in that area. This and other reports of economic recovery present the following conundrum: to believe or not to believe.
Given the innumerable reports of inflated and inaccurate (fraudulent?) profits in the last several years by many major U.S. businesses (that either control or are controlled by the government) – the very same U.S. businesses that defrauded their investors and shipped millions of jobs overseas, and given the Bush administration's "get our way at any cost or by any method" strategy (including manipulating facts and the truth) – well then, why should we believe the recent reports of an improving economy, so conveniently occurring as the president and his administration flounder and drown in Iraq and consequently, desperately, are contriving positive, though misleading, spins on this issue to bolster their presidential bid?
Given the innumerable reports of inflated and inaccurate (fraudulent?) profits in the last several years by many major U.S. businesses (that either control or are controlled by the government) – the very same U.S. businesses that defrauded their investors and shipped millions of jobs overseas, and given the Bush administration's "get our way at any cost or by any method" strategy (including manipulating facts and the truth) – well then, why should we believe the recent reports of an improving economy, so conveniently occurring as the president and his administration flounder and drown in Iraq and consequently, desperately, are contriving positive, though misleading, spins on this issue to bolster their presidential bid?
Mary Patrick