Balanced View on Future of Economy

Just 20 years ago a primary worry among Americans was how the country would deal politically with the likelihood of millions of permanently unemployed people because of the all layoffs caused by "downsizing", and "rightsizing".

But the doomsday forecast ended up dead wrong. Why? According to local economist Jeff Thredgold, " hundereds of thousands of displaced workers eventually started their own firms or joined small- and medium-sized companies. The result was the evolution of the most powerful, most competitive, and most dominant U.S. economic role in the world since the 1950s."

But you would not know that listening to the national media. In fact, since that time, solid global eeconomic performances has occured, with the 2003 to 2006 period being the strongest four-year period since the early 1970s, according to Thredgold.

According to Thredgold, the national media has consistently told a story of demise, leading Americans to believe that the economy is "merely limping along." Such accounts paint a distorted picure instead of a balanced view.

Why is Thredgold so optimistic? There are four major developments at work in the U.S. economy that drive his enthusiamsm. They are: Tight U.S. labor markets during the next 20 years will hsarply increase the real earnings of tens of millions of American workers. Two, pressure will reach a point when politicians are forced to set aside political rancor and work together to solve the entitlement and benefit issue. Three, low long-term interest rates will continue, benefitig home buyers and others who seek funding in the credit markets. Four, rising stock values and more aggressive moves by baby boomers to vuild their retirement will provide billions of new funding to the stock market.

Thredgold's economic analysis is refreshing amid the constant drumbeat of doomsday media accounts. It is a time a more balanced view was presented.

By Jillinda Bowers, taken from Salt Lake Realtor Magazine