Isn't it interesting that while the White House is telling us things are so much better that the Dow closed down almost 400 points on Thursday, dragging the rest of the world markets with it? Even with the recovery of one-third of Thursday's losses on Friday, the market is still jittery. Jobless claims are up and businesses are wary of claims that the economy is turning around, not willing to go out on a limb by investing what money they do have on something that so far appears to be wishful thinking.
I don't know about you, but a lot of the business owners I know aren't buying the “Economy's getting better” mantra. While a few of them have seen a slight uptick in business, most haven't.
The price of oil has dropped almost 20% since April. Even gas prices at the pump have been falling at a time when they usually rise. (The price locally hit $2.599/gallon today, down almost 20¢ since last week.) We should keep an eye on the price of gas as we approach Memorial Day weekend, which signals the unofficial start of the summer tourist season. It usually starts heading upwards in earnest in anticipation of the increase in demand usually seen between then and the end of August.
So far I'm not seeing much of a recovery, at least not here in New England.
