Bloomberg: economy is slowing and inflation remains a risk

By Lee Russ

Monday, July 17, 2006 at 04:01 PM

Bloomberg News offers the following intro to a story on the upcoming Fed Reserve announcement:

Bernanke May Give Republican Lawmakers Bad Election-Year News
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may deliver his fellow Republicans a message they'd rather not hear when he gives Congress his monetary-policy report this week: The economy is slowing and inflation remains a risk.

Now mind you that's according to the "official" economic stats.  In terms of ordinary worker pay, availability of decent jobs, and most things that matter to those of us who do not make their living off the stock and bond markets, the economy has been somewhere between "uh oh" and "Jeezus!" for some time.

And what do you think the most important part of this story is?  The story title gave it away: to hell with the actual state of the economy, how's this going to play in the election:

President George W. Bush and his Republican colleagues, trailing in the opinion polls, are counting on the strength of the economy to help them retain control of Congress in the November elections. A slowing economy -- in response to repeated Fed interest-rate increases -- will undercut that campaign theme.

"They're certainly going to be blamed if the economy slows down," says Karlyn Bowman, a polling expert at the Republican- leaning American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "That's something they need to worry about."

A slowing economy, a crappy job market, stagnant wages, continued downsizings, huge federal deficits, huge military expenditures, and monstrous graft and corruption at the highest levels of government.  Could that really be bad news for the ruling party?