• Friday's report also showed that a survey of jobs taken by sampling households rather than businesses registered a gain of 629,000 in July. Hourly earnings and hours worked were up. The economy has now gained 1.2 million jobs since the start of the year, winning back two-thirds of those lost in the recession Bush inherited from Clinton.
• Second-quarter profits for the 900 companies tracked by Business Week rose an incredible 32 percent. Business investment is soaring, up 14 percent for the year. The Institute for Supply Management's measure of manufacturing activity, which includes orders, inventories and employment, is at lofty levels not seen since the 1980s.
• Over the past 12 months, David Malpass of Bear Stearns points out, the U.S. economy--measured by our GDP--has grown at a rate of 4.8 percent. That's faster than in any 12-month period during the Clinton administration and three times as fast as Germany and France are growing.