News about U.S. economy just keeps getting better

Scripps Howard News Service: The original estimate for economic growth in the third quarter was 7.2 percent, and that seemed almost too good to be true, making you wonder what later estimates might tell us. The latest report card is in, and here is what's astounding: The growth was even better than supposed. It was 8.2 percent, the highest boost for almost 20 years.
The good news on top of the good news is that the extra growth came largely from business investment, which had been a missing piece in the recovery. Consumers have consistently done their share in keeping the economy rolling, but businesses have been holding back, apparently worried that the recovery would not prove real and their expenditures would become losses. In their purchases of more equipment and software, they are showing they are getting over the jitters.
Indicators point upward
Surely all this can't keep up, you might worry, and at that 8.2 percent rate, no, of course not. But future growth will be on top of that, and the predictions are for a healthy average of around 4 percent in coming quarters. The indicators are all good, including one just recently in. Durable goods orders were up by 3.3 percent in October, indicating that the troubled manufacturing sector is recovering more quickly than anyone guessed.
Will employment swing up soon? The Bush tax cuts had a lot to do with the third quarter growth, but future growth will depend in large part on greater numbers of people having jobs. If they do -- and slowly, slowly the number of jobs is growing -- they will spend more, and that spending will help create still more jobs as expanding businesses discover that they need more workers to meet market demands, even though their workers have become extraordinarily productive.
Figure this: By midway into 2004, the economy will be doing very, very well in the United States of America.