An Excellent Economic State of the Union, and today's other items

An Excellent Economic State of the Union

More than 55 million Americans, or four out of every 10 workers, left their jobs in 2005. Since there were more than 57 million new hires that same year, this is good news. It also means that new hires exceeded employee separations by an average of 364,000 per month. Per month!

Eat your heart out, Lou Dobbs.

The fact is, jobs continue to boom. So do real incomes, productivity and profits. Economist Michael Darda points out that real wages over the first five years of the Bush expansion are actually growing more rapidly than over the first five years of the Papa Bush/Bill Clinton boom.

Meanwhile, unemployment today is only 4.5 percent. Federal, state and local tax collections are soaring through the roof. Budget deficits are plunging. Inflation-adjusted GDP is averaging just more than 3 percent. Family wealth stands at a record of slightly more than $54 trillion. Total employment is at a record 146 million.

Stock markets, as you might have noticed, also continue to rise. They have done so, almost without interruption, for four years, on the shoulders of a remarkable surge in business profits -- which itself is a function of the high-tech, knowledge-based product explosion.

These corporate profits, along with our record-setting stock markets, have enriched the more than 100 million investors who are participating in this prosperity. In fact, this America boom is spearheading a global economic surge. While the American free-market model is often derided as "cowboy capitalism," imitation remains the sincerest form of flattery. And it isn't just China, India and Russia who are acquiescing to the worldwide spread of American capitalism. It's also Eastern Europe and parts of South America. Heck, even the socialists in Old Europe -- like France and Germany -- are getting into the act by reducing individual and corporate tax rates to promote growth.

The Terrorist Defense Initiative

Simply put, the most important question for U.S. leaders is: What set of policies is most likely to prevent Islamist terrorists from arriving in Los Angeles, or any other American community, with the capacity to kill thousands of people?

Ultimately, the attitude of voters toward any national security initiative presented as part of the "war on terror" will be determined by how they answer their own version of this question: Does this policy increase or decrease the chances Islamist terrorists will kill me, my family or my neighbors?

Two different war strategies

Michael Fumento has Yet more on the attack on OP Hotel ("The Ramadi Inn"). Don't miss it. Again, it is the embed independent journalists and bloggers who are reporting the real news in Iraq.

Rocco's back from Iraq go read about it. (h/t Jeremayakovka)

Somehow, it's hard to imagine Hillary Clinton waxing about any gossamer meadow.
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In a lighter mode,
I've met Charles, and that man in the photo is definitely not Charles. Jeff Jarvis's picture is blurry, and they found Glenn Reynold's high school graduation photo. I could have sent them a current picture of Glenn.
On the other hand, I hope that Forbes will use this picture if they ever confuse me with anyone else.
Update Forbes now has the right guy!

Underwear outerwear
The latest from Milan,
Via The Manolo, Leggings Are the New Must-Have. The last guys I've seen wearing leggings were the guys from ballet class.

A lot of women, and all men, don't look good in leggings. Not even gay men.

And let's not forget the Deadwood underwear of choice,

Trousers: don't leave home without them.