THE White House recently unveiled its latest economic strategy: cheerlead the economy and the stock market back to good health. In early October, Commerce Secretary Don Evans released an upbeat report, “The Case for Confidence,” which argues that, despite catastrophic stock-market losses, there is much good news on the economic front. “We are not being Pollyannish,” insists White House spokesman Dan Bartlett. “We are being accurate.” The Bush administration is making a dangerous gamble here, hoping that economic pep talks can substitute for a genuine, growth-oriented plan of action.
One cause for optimism cited by the Bush economic team is the recent jobs data from the Labor Department. The employment report for September reveals that the unemployment rate dipped to 5.6 percent—the lowest rate of any industrialized country. What a relief! Or was it? Even though unemployment fell, the economy still lost 43,000 jobs. In fact, the only major sector of the economy to gain jobs last month was the government.
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