Bad Economy - What?

These articles might dispute the democrats claim of a bad economy.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. weekly initial jobless claims fell 2,000 last week, touching a four-year low of 302,000 claims, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The four-week average of new claims dropped by 4,000 to stand at 311,750, the lowest since Nov. 4, 2000. Read the full report.

Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had been expecting claims to rise to 316,000. See Economic Calendar.

The number of people collecting unemployment benefits fell by 14,000 to 2.72 million, as of the week ended Feb. 5. The insured unemployment rate, meanwhile, fell 0.1 percentage point to 2.1 percent in the same week.

The jobless claims data show anew improvement in the nation's labor market conditions. Layoffs, represented by initial claims, have declined about 13 percent over the past year, from about 360,000 a year ago.

You can read another Reuters article about "jobless claim falling" and "import prices going up" here. Then yesterday USA Today reported that counstruction jumped which is another good sign.

WASHINGTON — New home and apartment construction jumped nearly 5% in January to the highest level in nearly 21 years, bolstered by historically low mortgage rates, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.
U.S. housing starts reached 2.16 million units on a seasonally adjusted annual basis in January. That's up from 2.06 million the previous month and is a nearly 12% increase from January 2004.

Housing permits, an indicator of future activity, rose nearly 2% to a 2.1 million seasonally adjusted annual rate. The housing-starts figure was the highest since February 1984.

The robust figures surprised economists. Many had predicted a dip in activity during January and expect the record-setting housing market — one of the brightest spots in the economy — to cool this year, partly in response to Federal Reserve interest rate increases.