I thought full employment was defined as 3%? Maybe I got some of that bad economic education you were mentioning <g>.

>Bad is a relative term. Compared to what? What measures are we comparing?
>
>GDP continues to rise
>http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=abWIQoli_QFI&refer=home
>
>Unemployment = 5.1% (full employment in economic terms)
>
>Inflation is rising but still historically low.
>http://www.inflationdata.com/Inflation/images/charts/Articles/Decade_inflation_chart.htm
>
>Money is cheap (granted you must now prove you can pay it back) and set to get cheaper.
>http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h8KpyRBjeJw2gfbZZF3Kt4NfKeDAD90C8I180
>
>We're have yet to see the 'recession' that's been talked about ad nauseum for 6 months. No I don't think the economy is very bad. I think the hype is WAY overblown. 70% is an overwhelming majority of the population. When things are really bad, people actually feel it rather than just hear about it.
>
>>I agree with you the economic understanding of the average American is not deep. But the economy is bad at the moment by anyone's measure, don't you think?
>>
>>>Polling Americans about the economy is amusing. The lack of economic knowledge in this country is a national disgrace repeatedly on display through the amount of debt people carry. Many hear repeated calls of 'housing crisis', 'credit crunch', and 'sub-prime lending' and even though most have little to no idea what the details are or how it effects the economy as a whole they'll repeat to a pollster that the economy is a 'disaster', just like they heard on tv.
>>>
>>>What always cracks me up is when you get further down in these stories, if it's mentioned at all, you see the dichotomy that is the average American.
>>>
>>>"When looking at the current state of their own finances, Americans remain relatively sanguine. More than 70 percent said that their financial situation was fairly good or very good, a number that has dropped only modestly since 2006."
>>>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/us/03cnd-poll.html?ref=politics&pagewanted=print
>>>