It's the Booming Economy, Stupid

MARCH 30, 2004
By GREGORY J. RUMMO

     THE MARCH 29 edition of USA Today featured a front page Section B article on the economy headlined, “Economists see booming economy.”

            Presidential hopeful, John Kerry, please note.

            The story reported that employers will soon be adding jobs as the economy continues to expand. At least that is the “optimistic outlook” of the 56 economists who were surveyed. They also predict that both businesses and consumers will continue to spend more as the unemployment rate falls, which in the US, where the economy is driven by consumerism, will further stoke economic fires. 

            This is not some rosy, fingers crossed, eyes closed prediction. As a small business owner myself, I can attest to the truth of this survey from my own actions.  

            Fiscal 2003-2004 was a very good year for the company I run. So good in fact, I took advantage of the low prices Dell Computers was offering and upgraded our entire network in February.

            Our computers were several years old. We had a mish-mash of applications installed on over-stuffed hard drives. They were slow and memory starved. Almost all of them were running Microsoft Windows 98. Large, clunky cathode ray monitors sat on people’s desks, hogging precious work space.

            For an investment of a little more than $25,000, I was able to purchase nine Pentium IV PCs and two laptops. The new computers are loaded with features and with 512 MB of RAM, they run efficiently.

            Windows XP Professional is now running our applications. A firewall, along with the latest self-updating version of Norton Anti-virus protects us from hackers who have as their only goal in life to make productive people’s lives miserable. Sleek, black 17” flat-panel digital monitors now adorn everyone’s desktops, making for a more open look to the office and a more efficient use of work space. 

            And I was able to garner some good will by letting my employees take their old computers home for their children or in some cases, for themselves.

            Even though our company is a small business, employing nine people, it is nonetheless a vignette of corporate America.

            So it came as no surprise when Dell recently reported business purchases were brisk as more and more companies upgraded their networks with the newer, faster machines. And it looks like the pace of business investment will only increase in the months ahead—good news for the economy.

            Decision Economics President Allen Sinai was quoted in the USA Today article, saying, “Business looks really very, very good.” He also noted “corporate profits are rising rapidly,” which means that companies will be flush with cash and therefore able to afford “new technology and other improvements.” 

            But the good news doesn’t end with investments in hardware.

            Companies are also expected to spend money on hiring during the second quarter of this year.

            None of this bodes well for John Kerry and anti-Bush sycophants such as The Media Fund. This week they aired political ads promoting Kerry’s tax policies and bashing the Bush tax cuts as being only for “The _ _ _ _ .” I leave it to you to fill in the blank here, proving that if a lie is repeated often enough, it becomes reflexive.

            The hand writing is on the wall.

            Barring another catastrophic terrorist attack on US soil, the economy will definitely be an issue in this year’s November election but only in that it will help re-elect George Bush to a second term in office. n

Gregory J. Rummo is a syndicated columnist. Read all of his columns on his homepage, www.GregRummo.com. E-Mail Rummo at  GregoryJRummo@aol.com