Seymour Lipkin, the pianist/composer who left this world recently, was once asked if he had always wanted to pursue a career in music. “I never considered anything else,” he said. “There was never any … thought that I would be, say, an economist, God forbid.” At times like this I can’t help feeling that I should not have rejected my mother’s insistence that I learn to play the piano. It’s somewhere between difficult and impossible to figure out where the U.S. economy is headed.
Those who should know are not of much help. Jamie Dimon says more people are working, wages are up, consumers are spending home sales are up, people are buying cars, “That’s pretty good.” The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas reports that “economic activity expanded in most [Federal Reserve] Districts … consumer spending increased in the majority of Districts … residential and real estate sales rose in most Districts … labor market conditions continued to improve.” President Obama says “the United States of America has … emerged as the strongest, most durable economy in the world …”. Of course he would say that, in response to Republican wannabees who are campaigning on platforms that contend that the nation is in deep trouble and, in one case, that we need a caudillo to make America great again. But Obama has support from the Sage of Omaha, Warren Buffett, who says the Republican critics are “dead wrong … The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history…. Today’s politicians need not shed tears for tomorrow’s children.” Investors have been responding to these bits of cheer of late, sending share prices up for the past three weeks.
