Monetary gurus at the Federal Reserve Board — technically, the Open Market Committee — are not given to irrational exuberance. So when they say, “Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in March suggests that economic activity has continued to strengthen and that the labor market is beginning to improve,” you can believe that things are really looking up for the U.S. economy.

True, the ever-cautious Fed also said that although household spending is picking up it is still constrained by “high unemployment, modest income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit.” Two and perhaps three of these seeming negatives are in fact good news.