Reasons To Be Thankful About The Economy

BARRON'S November 28, 2012 By: Gene Epstein Who would have thought the U.S. economy would offer so much to be thankful for? This year's Gratefulness Award goes to Wells Capital Management's chief investment strategist, Jim Paulsen, who in response to my annual Thanksgiving poll, came up with more than a dozen reasons to be thankful for the economy's current state. Here are the more important items on his list, along with my ungrateful annotations (with thanks to Paulsen for acting as my foil). "The unemployment rate is again steadily declining." Yes, but at 7.9% in October, it's still way above anyone's measure of full employment, normally set at under 6%. At the pace of decline from the October 2009 high of 10.0%, it would take nearly three years to achieve full employment, one of the slowest recoveries on record. "The labor force is again steadily rising." True, but the share of the po...