AP Poll Finds Bush Getting Good Marks

WASHINGTON - Amid rising consumer confidence, President Bush (news - web sites) gets good marks for his handling of the economy from a clear majority of voters for the first time in more than a year, an Associated Press poll finds.

The uptick in Bush's rating on an issue certain to be central to the upcoming presidential campaign comes as overall public confidence in the economy is as high as it's been since early 2002, according to the national poll conducted last week for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs.


In all, 55 percent of registered voters said they approve of Bush's handling of the economy and 43 percent disapproved, according to the survey. That's Bush's best number on this measure in Ipsos polls since the third quarter of 2002, though he briefly came close to this level � at 52 percent � in July of this year.


rest of the article


this is more proof of BUsh handling the economy RIGHT.

Yea a poll proves it all lmfao.

Originally posted by DiRtYDeViL
Yea a poll proves it all lmfao.

ok you believe NOTHING...

so where do you get your conclusions?

Originally posted by Russian

Originally posted by DiRtYDeViL
Yea a poll proves it all lmfao.

ok you believe NOTHING...

so where do you get your conclusions?

Dollar is down 30%.
Dollar Plunges After Consumer Data
December 12, 2003 10:52:00 AM ET

By Daniel Bases

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar careened to a record low against the euro on Friday in the wake of a surprising drop in U.S. consumer sentiment in contrast to generally upbeat U.S. economic data.

The University of Michigan's preliminary reading of December consumer sentiment fell to 89.6 from November's final reading of 93.7. Economists forecast a rise to 96.0.

The dollar had rallied earlier this week as investors sold euros in order to lock in profits on its 9 cent move higher against the greenback in the last five weeks.

``There is not too much enthusiasm in the market for the dollar. I think in the last couple days the market has tried to buy the dollar, but has been disappointed for lack of follow through and the Michigan data caused the market to cover their recent short-euro positions,'' said Russell LaScala, chief spot dealer at Deutsche Bank in New York.

The euro climbed to record high $1.2279(EUR-) according to Reuters data before drifting back to $1.2252, still a gain of 0.36 percent on the day.

LaScala doesn't see enough momentum to push the euro through the psychologically important $1.23 level on Friday, but expects it to ``grind higher'' next week.

The dollar, already weak against the yen, remained down 0.19 percent to trade near 107.75 yen(JPY-).

After Japan's quarterly ``tankan'' poll, a closely watched survey showed big Japanese firms more confident about business conditions than at any time in the past six years, selling pressure increased on the greenback.

However, fears of intervention are thought to have put a cap on the dollar's losses.

Japan is concerned a rising yen could harm the country's export-led recovery and Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki reiterated on Friday that recent currency moves had been too fast.

WIDER TRADE GAP

Before the big surprise drop in the consumer data, the dollar had trimmed modest losses after the October U.S. trade gap data came in near estimates, confounding investors who expected worse and sold the greenback ahead of the report only to buy it back again.

``The expectations for bad data were already priced in, but it really wasn't so bad,'' said Patrick Brodie, chief dealer at SMBC in New York.

In October the U.S. trade deficit widened to $41.77 billion versus a slight upward revision to $41.34 billion in September.

In addition to the trade data, U.S. inflation on the producer level fell unexpectedly in November which carries a mixed message for the dollar.

Falling inflation benefits U.S. asset markets, and is another reason why the Federal Reserve can leave interest rates low for the foreseeable future.

However, low U.S. interest rates versus higher rates among the dollar's peers means there is less incentive to purchase the dollar.

``From an interest rate differential perspective, it is dollar negative. But at some point with people buying our stocks and bonds you would expect some spillover into the dollar. Psychologically the Dow (Jones industrial average) above 10,000 is good news,'' said Hugh Walsh, vice president of foreign exchange at Fortis Bank in New York.

November's producer price index fell 0.3 percent versus expectations for a rise of 0.1 percent. Inflation on the wholesale level was up 0.8 percent in October. Excluding the food and energy sectors, prices dropped 0.1 percent last month.

The dollar fell to 1.2663 (CHF-), a loss of 0.27 percent on the day. Earlier, Swiss National Bank chairman Jean-Pierre Roth called dollar weakness a problem but said that overall the forex situation was not bad.

Elsewhere, sterling climbed to a fresh 11-year high $1.7509 (GBP-), but dipped back to $1.7456, still a gain of 0.12 percent.

� 2003 Reuters

Consumer and Government debut at in all time high. Job market needs to improve. There is no such thing as a jobless recovery it's like the service economy propaganda. Bush and the controlled media are filling you with propaganda while reporting the crap news about it in the back pages. Polls mean nothing . You can poll for any data you want. Figures are what matter and when I see a huge growth in the GDP where they say american's are working harder and producing more then anyone in the world doesn't that sound alarm flags to you. What does America produce? Oranges? We are nearing as a nation ever so close to economic collapse.

Some other good stuff
Poetic Justice: A Paper Coffin for the Not-So-Almighty Dying Dollar
The Dow has actually gone nowhere this year

[Edited on 21-12-2003 by DiRtYDeViL]

dirty read this thread

it has all the info about the dollar...

falling dollar is NOT very bad...

Yes it is a bad thing. Rich Americans will start pulling their dollars out of America and invest them some place else. Didn�t you read Buffets comments about how he can�t stand by and watch 30% more of his fortunes go away. He�s pulling out so is Soros so are a lot of other multi-millionaires and billionaires. This will redistribute the wealth in the long run. This will come back to haunt us hopefully later then sooner.

DiRtYDeViL,
I agree with Russian, Bush has been doing a fair job handling the economy, while were fighting a war, and he's not doing any worse than any other president.

In addition to that, the president does not have THAT much control over the economy. The truth of the economy lies in the Real Estate market and Business gain.

So, since he is for helping big business give us all the jobs those 94% of us non slackers with jobs, that is fine.

Also, he has NO control over Real Estate, the real back bone of economy.

And actually, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae have been stedily creating programs to get people of lower income into their own houses.

I don't know how it is where you live, but it makes NO sence to rent around here (Virginia outside DC), cause the market is so Hot.