A sure sign the economy is improving

I expect that many of you are like me - we celebrate but hold our breath a bit when the good economic news continues to roll in. Sure unemployment is down and auto-makers are back in business. But there's still that voice that wonders if the other shoe is going to drop.

Indicators that you might not have been following when it comes to our economy are also suggesting that things are improving.

For example, why else would Fox and Friends have to be peddling conspiracy theories?

On "Fox & Friends" this morning, Brian Kilmeade noted that good economic news matters a great deal when it comes to the president's fortunes, but only "if you believe these numbers."

A minute later, Gretchen Carlson added, "Unemployment has gone down, more jobs have been created. Now, you can argue about how those numbers, some people say they've been fabricated."

That level of cognitive dissonance must be painful. And its not likely to be fabricated.

If it weren't improper to psychologically analyze strangers, one might think the Fox hosts are displaying a textbook example of cogitative dissonance here, a psychological phenomena in which people who hold on strong belief about something invent (sometimes farfetched) explanations for new evidence that conflicts with their existing views. Obama is bad for the economy, the jobs numbers show the economy is doing better, so there must be something wrong with the jobs numbers.

On the other hand, I tend to visit Daily Kos every morning. One of the most popular and prolific writers there is bobswern. For yeas now I could always count on seeing a diary of his on the rec list every morning that warned of impending economic doom. These days he's gone all but silent while front-pagers like Meteor Blades (who have to report the actual news) are forced to document the progress (always with the caveat of "not good enough yet" of course).

So there you have it - my economic indicators that suggest things are actually getting better...conspiracy theories hatched on the right and silence from the doom-and-gloomers on the left. Things really MUST be improving!!

;-)