It Really Should Be a Happy New Year!

First, forget about resolutions. A year ago I posted this article that provides insight on what you should be doing, not just at the beginning of the year, but all year long.

10 Life-Changing New Year's Habits

Other reasons to celebrate, especially if you live in the United States.

Democrats peddle doom, but the middle class never had it so good
These days when you listen to the gloom of the media and many of the presidential candidates you have to wonder what country these Debbie Downers are talking about.

Former Vice President Joe Biden recently declared “the middle class is getting crushed … and the working class has no way up.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders stews that President Trump’s policies have brought “handouts for billionaires and hunger for the poor.”

Mayor Pete Buttigieg claims that many working families are struggling so much financially they don’t have enough income to be able to “afford a two-bedroom apartment.”

The Washington Post says that Americans are awash in debt that they can’t repay.

Time out for a dose of reality. If things are so bad, how is it that a new poll from CNN — hardly a network friendly to Mr. Trump, finds three of four Americans rate the economy as pretty good or really good.

We have become so rich as a nation that even most poor families can buy dolls and baseball bats and $100 Nike basketball shoes for the kids, and cellphones that have more computing power than every computer used to put a man on the moon.

It is nonsense to say the poor and the middle class are worse off than 20 or 30 or 50 years ago. Read more...

Here are some facts about the American economy:

• Jobs have grown for 106 consecutive months, the longest streak on record.
• At 121 months, this is the longest bull market in American history.
• The unemployment rate has been at 4 percent or less for 16 consecutive months, the longest such streak in 50 years.
• Inequality remains a crucial problem, but wages are now growing the fastest among the lowest-wage industries, thanks to state-by-state increases in the minimum wage and the effects of low unemployment.
• The University of Michigan’s consumer-sentiment index, which peaked at 112 in 1999, has hovered above 90 for more than four years, something that hasn’t happened since the 1990s.
• Latino unemployment has fallen to its lowest rate on record.
• Black unemployment, too, has fallen to its lowest rate on record, and, as the investor and Bloomberg columnist Conor Sen points out, the unemployment rate for black teenagers, which peaked at 48.9 percent in 2010, has plunged to yet another record low in 2019.

How is the U.S. economy doing? Here are 5 key signs to watch right now

There is no recession, not yet, but it always pays to be prepared, something I've been preaching all along.