Perhaps important at the time, but they are consistently on the rise now.

Predictably, it made this little Keynesianist very happy indeed. Sadly though, this is another example of the Bush administration's trying to balance economic agendas of both the right and left and combined with all his other spending (just read my other posts, or even better read Redoedos posts on his spending) is like riding a unicycle over a tightrope.

Yes, interest rates are low now, but we have to look at the long term here. We have a weak dollar right now combined with low interest rates. Now combine that with the tax cuts and heavy subsidies to agriculture and big industry plus higher tariffs and the result is going to be that the economy improves, and just in time for Bush's re-election. Yes, the last recession was more shallow than others, and I do give the Bush Administration credit for keeping the economy moving, but the current economic policy that we're espousing now is inflationary. Eventually, we are going to have to pay the piper. It might be sometime later this decade, I don't know, but the lower interest rates just maintain demand at higher levels than what they really are. Eventually, prices will have to go up, it's inevitable. The Bush Administration along with the Federal Reserve are betting that the economy and consumer confidence will stay strong enough to maintain our fundamentals in sound shape. I think they're being a bit too optimistic, but for the meantime, the economy has been improving because of lower interest rates among other things.

this is a big story because it is one of the major reasons the economy improved in 2003.