Beaulieu to NFDA: U.S. Economy is in Good Shape
FEATURE
The U.S. economy is in good shape, economist Dr. Alan Beaulieu declared. Unemployment is down and manufacturing is up. The leading indicators are pointing up. The world is relatively calm. Banks are lending. Retail sales are rising. Non-residential construction is improving.
“The recession ended in 2009,” Beaulieu of ITR Economics told the National Fastener Distributors Association. “Think of how to grow.”
Interest rates are low, Beaulieu added. “This is the time to borrow. Borrow until you can’t sleep again. Borrow until your banker can’t sleep.”
Employment is rising and after downsizing due to the past recession. “Companies are right-sized,” Beaulieu finds.
Beaulieu noted a recent Fox News poll found 65% of America “thinks we are in a recession. Wrong!” he retorted. Declaring the current economy almost the “Roaring 20’s,” Beaulieu asked, “How can so many people be wrong?”
When a NFDA member suggested the negative rating may be politically-motivated, Beaulieu agreed. He noted a Colorado senator elected last November recently gave a negative speech about the economy. “He is wrong. He must still be giving his stump speech,” Beaulieu said.
Though for a few recent months, some industries have shown some slowing, the U.S. economy is “not heading toward breakdown.”
“Think of how to grow,” he advised.
Beaulieu. who describes himself as a “Austrian business-oriented economist rather than a Keynesian government-oriented economist,” displayed graphs showing the U.S. Industrial production and real gross domestic product growing since the recession and ITR’s projections for continued expansion through the first half of 2018.
By late 2018 through 2019 there will be a “consumer-led recession,” but it will be mild compared with 2008, Beaulieu predicted.
Founded in 1948, ITR Economics is a economic research and consulting firm which boasts a 94.7% accuracy rate in its projections. Web: itreconomics.com
For more of Beaulieu’s observations and data at the National Fastener Distributors Association conference, FIN Subscribers can CLICK HERE.
Or see the NFDA website: nfda-fastener.org.
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