Economy Not Tanking After All?

There has been lots of recession talk the last couple of months, but that has seemed to die down of late. (Hmm...right after the election...)

Here are a couple more encouraging signs:

Oil in biggest fall in two years

Oil prices saw their sharpest drop in two years, shedding more than $2 a barrel as mild US weather led consumers to use less petrol and heating oil.

US light crude oil fell $2.73 to $55.59 a barrel in New York, falling by over $5 in two days. In London meanwhile, Brent crude fell $2.85 to $55.11.

Thank you climate change!

Job growth, hourly earnings jump in December

The U.S. economy added a surprisingly strong 167,000 jobs in December, according to a government report on Friday showing a jump in pay that may fan concerns by policy-makers who fear a strong job market could ignite inflation.

The Labor Department also revised hiring up for each of the two prior months from previous estimates. The unemployment rate in December was 4.5 percent, unchanged from November.

Wall Street economists had forecast that only 100,000 new jobs would be created in December, so the report painted a picture of a substantially healthier job market than anticipated as 2006 ended.

"The manufacturing side of the economy may be weak, but the rest of the economy is strong and that suggests that we're probably going to see continued good economic growth in the months ahead," said Gary Thayer, chief economist for A.G. Edwards and Sons Inc. in St. Louis.

Hey, the world can't be all doom and gloom.