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When is an increase a decline?

When journalists look at job figures and the economy. My friend A.Z. and I were reminiscing about housing prices this week. We're old. We don't remember the Great Depression, however, so we can't tell the stories our parents told us. But like our parents, we wish our children had some perspective. She remembered when they sold their home in south Arlington in 1980 the interest rates were 17%. I recalled paying 10% in 1988 when we bought our summer home in Lakeside, and we were happy to get it. Thirty years ago the unemployment rate was around 7.8%; today it is 4.7%. No matter. It is always gloom and doom when the media get ahold of the figures. Sort of makes me happy I didn't read the economic news in the 1970s.

Kelly Evans at the WSJ reported "little cheer" in the job report for November. Employment ROSE by 94,000 in November (it was 44,000 in September), and unemployment stayed at 4.7% for the 3rd consecurive month. And consumer expectations have "slipped" according to a Reuters/University of Michigan survey (can't imagine a worse state for economic news if that's where the survey was taken). Its index of current economic conditions rose in December to 92.1 from 91.5 in November, but consumers (who have to listen to a constant roar of negative news from the MSM) found higher gasoline prices and are not happy (let's reduce taxes on gasoline and make the consumer smile). Evans' article also mentioned low inflation, and the fact that the average hourly wage earnings jumped to $17.63, up JUST 3.8% from a year ago, and a resilient labor market. Oh woe is me. Can you stand the pain?