U.S Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez Blowin’ Smoke

While searching for some accurate numbers pertaining to the economy today, I ran across what is billed as “Top Economic Story” on the U.S. Commerce Departments web site. Secretary Gutierrez blatantly announced that the economy is great and all of us can just go home and kiss our dog. He bases this overwhelming complacency in the economy on two numbers; the Trade Deficit and Job Creation.

First the slightly lower trade deficit that was brought about by two factors, an increase in exports due largely to the decline in the value of the dollar and a single months15% drop in the price of oil, lowering the import amount. The second is that we have created 7.6 million jobs over the last 3 ½ years. As quoted before, nearly all of these new jobs come from positions created in the medical field and, in the last year, services.

With the price of oil back up, housing falling apart, 1.5 million general accounting jobs to be “exported” soon and the dollars further decline, I can’t wait to see what he brags about next.