Economy Booming - Somebody Tell the Press

The economy is booming, despite high gas prices.

The U.S. economy shot forward at an upwardly revised 5.3 percent annual rate in the first quarter, the fastest growth in 2-1/2 years, as companies built up inventories and exports strengthened, a Commerce Department report on Thursday showed.

First-quarter growth in gross domestic product was more than triple the 1.7 percent annual rate recorded in last year's fourth quarter, though still slightly below Wall Street economists' forecasts for a 5.7 percent pace.

Prices remained in check, with the core personal consumption expenditures price index that the Federal Reserve favors rising at a 2 percent rate compared with 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter.

The first-quarter surge in GDP - the largest since a 7.2 percent jump in the third quarter of 2003 - was partly fueled by rebuilding in the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast region. Growth is widely forecast to level off in coming quarters to a range of between 3 percent and 4 percent.

This is good news that the Bush Administration needs to keep trumpeting at every opportunity, because the only thing most people know about the economy is how much it costs to buy gasoline.

Meanwhile, the press continues to promote the idea that the economy is in trouble and continues to pound out the negative stories regarding record gas prices and how they're affecting the "average" folks. You can expect every story in the next day or so which refers to the strong economy to include a caveat about how everything may come crashing down if gas prices stay high.