Without Boeing, US Economy Is Sinking

From the newswire of the World Advertising Research Center, the "leading supplier of information, knowledge, insight and data to the global marketing, advertising, media and research communities", comes this gem you won't find on Faux News.

ONLY AIRCRAFT ORDERS KEEP US ECONOMY ALOFT

The US Federal Trade Commission reports that orders for durable goods (those intended to last three or more years) excluding transportation items fell 0.6% during November - the third consecutive month to record a downward trend.

Duable goods are seen as a key indicator of US economic health, and economists had forecast orders outside transportation to climb 1%. However, if non-military aircraft sales are factored into the data, the overall figure increases to plus 4.4%.

Another closely-watched economic indicator is the University of Michigan's index of consumer sentiment.

In the final December measure this reportedly rose to 91.5 from November's 81.6. But there appears to be little cause for euphoria, the year-on-year figure being 5.6 points below that of December 2004 (97.1).

Did you get that? Without Boeing, Bush's economy would be obviously tanking. Boeing's international success skews the figures and lets BushCo massage the truth.

Puts the Airbus/Boeing trade war into a whole different context, doesn't it?