“This economy is strong and growing. The president’s pro-growth policies, including the tax relief, are working.”

Those are the words of Rob Portman, the White House Budget Director and, if the fact that the unemployment rate went down last month while the average American’s income went up is any indication, he may be right. Among the group of people however who invest in stocks and otherwise work in and around the stock market, being right doesn’t matter much. After the government’s positive announcement about jobs and income yesterday, the stock market fell.

Meanwhile the many millions of us who observe things like the nations economy and the movements of the stock, bond and commodities exchanges from the outsider’s perspective react with an unsettled amazement at the apparent disconnect between the economy we see and the economy ‘they’ (the insiders) see.

What the insiders apparently worry about when the numbers are good, as they were reported to be yesterday, are the negative aspects of a good economy; things like a tight job market, inflation and, of course, that pesky interest rate that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve holds over our heads like a Sword of Damocles. Well they are the experts!

There is, by the way, another group of contrarians who react adversely to good economic numbers for more obvious reasons; these are the people (almost always politicians) who have ‘something’ to gain by forecasting doom and gloom and claiming that the economic numbers are merely “spin” tactics.

The best advise for economic outsiders is to studiously ignore these political yea- or ney-sayers and then either pay very close attention to the economic insiders or, perhaps better yet, turn on a ball game!

News Link:

WashingtonPost.com: U.S. Job Numbers Remain Strong Bush Promotes September Totals, But Markets Fall

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