My Eyes See a Different Economy Than the Media Portrays

This weekend I enjoyed an outing held for the company my wife works for when she is not doing work for her own company. We went to Lake Geneva, WI for a Friday dinner cruise and a Saturday on the lake. We stayed at a very nice resort and had a great time. I have never been to Lake Geneva, and I have absolutely fallen in love with the place. The water is the clearest water I have ever seen in a lake. One section of the lake hold the huge summer homes built by the Wrigley family (that's a lot of sticks of gum). The town is charming and the setting is just perfect. We had the chance to use our new toy purchased back in August. We have had quite a number of wonderful times taking out our new SeaDoo to the area rivers and Lake Michigan.

The thing that jumped out at me this weekend was the sheer volume of people engaging in commerce. The dinner cruise was nearly full. There were quite a number of people at the resort for an off season time period. Traffic was heavy in town with people coming and going. Saturday I was caught in heavy traffic in a downtown that consists of about 4x3 city blocks. It took me almost 15 minutes to drive through town to get to the lake. The streets were absolutely flooded with shoppers. In addition to the shoppers in the stores, the sidewalks in front had people packed like sardines as they walked from store to store. The lake had quite a number of boats and personal watercraft.

I have a long drive to work every day. Over the years I can gauge economic conditions by the traffic. After 9/11 I saw a dramatic reduction in congestion when I drove to work. It gradually rose back to normal congestion. Every day I drive to work, I only see more and more congestion. I have not yet seen any reduction at all in spite of all the rhetoric.

With all the swirling economic doom and gloom, you would expect people to be lying in the fetal position at home instead of out enjoying themselves. We may very well be on our way to a weaker economy, but everywhere I go my eyes tell me that as John McCain said and was so ridiculously criticized for - the fundamentals of the economy are sound. Not only does the economy continue to do well, it continues to do well under the drumbeat, onslaught of the Democrats and their friends in the media. Sure people continue to parrot the bad economy media lines fed to them day in and day out, but then they go out and act like the economy is humming along. What speaks louder to you - words or actions? I hear the Democrats and the MSM every day downing the status of the economy, but my own eyes tell me something different.