Did we hear that correctly?
Did Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke actually say something positive about the economy?
Something about it starting to grow again in 2009, after 18 months of a deep recession?
Something about stronger home sales, increased consumer spending and improved lending conditions.
No reason to clean out our ears. Bernanke did say that Tuesday during a meeting of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.
He tempered his optimism by saying that the recovery initially would be weak, and that more jobs would be lost even as the recovery begins.
But after a year-and-a-half of doomsday-like headlines about crumbling financial institutions, free-falling home values, eroding retirement savings and skyrocketing unemployment, we’ll take just about any positive news on the economic front.
Tough times still are ahead. Many folks likely won’t regain what they’ve lost during this recession whether in home value, retirement savings, income — for a while. But the economic news, finally, is encouraging. And we’ll take that, no matter how tempered it is.
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