Snow Job!

Hey, there's nothing to worry about with that jobs report - here it is, straight from the treasury department:

Department of Treasury
FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

April 1, 2005
JS-2351

Statement of Treasury Secretary John W. Snow on March Employment Report

This week, the announcement of two vital economic indicators continues to show America's economy is on the right path. Today's announcement that the unemployment rate fell to 5.2% and 110,000 new jobs have been created is good news for the direction of America's economy. That makes for over 3 million new jobs since May 2003. For 2004, the Gross Domestic Product was 3.9 percent, which is yet another sign that America's economy is flourishing.

President Bush is committed to keeping the economy on the path of healthy growth by cutting the deficit in half, enacting an energy policy, and strengthening social security. The President's leadership on economic policy is clearly moving the economy in the right direction.

It is difficult to resist natural instincts to dive right in here, it was so enjoyable for last week's Fed Policy Statement, but that would be too easy (and a bit repetitive), so instead, here are some insights from across the pond - a few choice excerpts from a recent Economist article discussing our federal government's economics team:

"In theory, Mr Bush's economic team is headed by John Snow. The president was on the point of sacking his treasury secretary at the end of last year; he then pulled back-but only apparently to keep Mr Snow as a travelling salesman for his pension-reform scheme. The former railroad boss has recently visited such well-known global financial centres as San Antonio, Albuquerque and New Orleans.

There are two growing suspicions about Mr Bush's approach to economic policy... The first is that he sees it mainly as a question of salesmanship... The second suspicion is that loyalty is more important than knowledge.

What would Mr Bush's team do if there was some sort of international economic crisis, such as a dollar crash?

Iit would all come down to Mr Greenspan... But the Fed chairman is due to step down early next year. There are three front runners to replace him... None of these men has recent experience of dealing with financial crises. Mr Bush should be crossing his fingers that nothing goes wrong."

Yes, that's a good idea, we should all cross our fingers.