The Wall Street Journal reports that a batch of good economic news might give Republican candidates a boost in this fall's elections. Well, good economic news is generally good news for the party in power, but the reports we have been seeing lately don't look very good. At the top of the list we have falling home sales and prices, and record high ratios of mortgage debt to home values. Yesterday, the Commerce Department reported that new orders for durable goods are also headed down. Employment growth has been weak for 5 straight months, while wages have been struggling to keep even with inflation. None of this adds up to a disaster (at least not yet), but I'm not sure that anyone would boast about it either. Gas prices have tumbled in the last few weeks, and this is clearly good news for people's pocketbooks, but I'm not sure that many people will vote Republican because of $2.30 a gallon gas. I guess my question is, if there is in fact so much good economic news, why hasn't the Wall Street Journal been reporting it?
--Dean Baker
