THE BEST ADVICE for today’s investors may have been penned some 350 years ago by the poet Robert Herrick, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, . . . this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying.” The American economy looks set for robust growth this quarter and next. After that, many experts are saying that the outlook is not quite so bright.
The economy grew at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the final quarter of last year, and will probably grow a bit faster than that in the first half of this year. Sales of new homes last month were up 24.4 percent over the February 2003 total, reducing the inventory of unsold homes to a level so low that housing construction will remain strong. Sales of capital goods are up, suggesting continued improvement in the manufacturing sector. Consumers continue to spend. Little wonder that most economists are relaxed about the economy’s performance through the second quarter.
