By Tom Ashbrook.
It’s been hot sometimes and cold sometimes, but for five-plus years now, Americans have lived in the midst of an economic expansion.
The rewards may not have been equally shared, but it beats recession any day. Now, economists are looking out on the newly-dawned 2007, and asking if the growth train can go on. American consumers have been a big engine for years now, but the fuel for that consumer spending was a boom in home prices that is officially over, and could yet go really bust.
Inflation is mild, interest rates are manageable, global growth is strong, the stock market ended ‘06 flying. Can it all go on another year?
This hour On Point: we’ll look at jobs, wages, housing and the US economy in 2007.
Guests:
James Lynch, political reporter for the Cedar Rapids Gazette
Tom Fielder, executive editor of the Miami Herald
Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst, senior editor at the Atlantic Monthly
