America's Economy is Basically Fine

Thanks to Mike Devine ("Gamecock" on Red State for acquainting me with the material below.)

Recently, John McCain said America's economic "fundamentals are good." Of course, Barack Obama and his horde of know-nothings immediately rushed out with a commercial indicating that McCain must be clueless because he was not presenting the kind of hysterical message we were hearing on CNN and MSNBC. As the article by Max Boot (an excerpt below) shows, what McCain said was factually (key word) correct.

Of course, in the world of BHO and David Axelrod, little matters like truth count for nothing -- and demagoguery counts for everything.

Here's the link to Boot's profoundly important essay that appeared in the LA Times.http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-boot24-2008sep24,0,96527.story

The following is an excerpt from the article:

"What the pessimists ignore is that the fundamentals of the U.S. economy remain strong. Indeed, the World Economic Forum has ranked the United States as the world's most competitive economy for the last two years. (The new survey comes out next month.) Its statistics show that per-capita gross domestic product in the U.S. consistently has grown faster than in other developed economies since 1980.

Looking deeper at the causes of American competitiveness shows that we score especially strongly not only in domestic market size (No. 1 in the world) but also in such areas as time required to start a business (No. 3), venture capital availability (No. 1), the cost of firing an employee (No. 1), ownership of personal computers (No. 2), university/industry research collaboration (No. 1) and quality of scientific research institutions (No. 2).

"The availability of venture capital might be affected temporarily by the market turmoil, and we should worry if Democrats gain control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in November because they might exacerbate what the survey found to be the two most "problematic" issues for doing business in the U.S. -- high tax rates and cumbersome tax regulations.

"But whatever happens in the next few months, most of the other advantages that have been powering the U.S. economy forward for decades will remain unchanged.

So too will another vital statistic: population growth. According to federal statistics, the fertility rate in the U.S., where each woman has on average 2.1 children, is now the highest among major industrialized economies. We are above replacement level while Europe, Japan and other industrialized economies have long been beneath it.

That means that, even as our major competitors have to cope with graying populations, declining productivity and increasing pension costs, our population will remain relatively youthful and vibrant, notwithstanding the retirement of the baby boomers. This advantage is enhanced by our ability to attract and integrate hardworking immigrants from around the world."

Barack Obama, meet Max Boot.

Max Boot is a contributing editor to Opinion and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.