But obviously there is a massive conspiracy among economists to make Obama look better.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/leading-indicators-rise-06-in-july-2009-08-20
Leading indicators rise 0.6% in July
Fourth straight gain points to approaching recovery
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- An economic recovery may begin soon, and data suggest that the recession is bottoming out, the Conference Board said Thursday.
For its fourth consecutive monthly gain, the index of leading economic indicators rose 0.6% in July, following an upwardly revised increase of 0.8% in June. However, July's gain was below the consensus forecast of 0.7% from economists polled by MarketWatch.
Despite good news in the data, "headwinds" remain for the U.S. economy, wrote Charmaine Buskas, senior economics strategist with TD Securities, in a research note.
"The labor market will remain a big hurdle going forward and might limit the extent to which the leading indicators can post significant upside," Buskas wrote.
Overall, six of the 10 indicators were positive contributors, three were negative, and one was steady. The interest rate spread was the largest positive contributor, while a reading on consumer expectations was the largest negative contributor.
As strength among indicators has widened in recent months, the six-month growth rate for the overall index hit 3%, its highest level since mid-2004, according to the Conference Board. In the prior six months, the index fell 2.8%.
The coincident index, which economists use to determine whether the economy is in a downturn, was unchanged in July, following eight months of declines. This index has been negative throughout the recession except for a gain in October, and a no-growth reading in April 2008. The lagging index fell 0.3%.
Elsewhere Thursday, the Labor Department reported that initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose by 15,000 to 576,000
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
