Reports Show More Americans Feel Economic Recovery

(04-14) 07:26 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

A flurry of reports out Wednesday suggested that many Americans are feeling better about the economic rebound.

Retail spending rose sharply and more than expected. Consumer inflation remains all but invisible. Businesses are boosting their stockpiles in anticipation of higher shopper demand.

And Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke expressed confidence that the recovery will endure, though without enough strength to quickly reduce unemployment much.

The latest evidence of a gradually strengthening recovery was a third straight month of retail sales gains reported by the government. Better weather and auto incentives brought shoppers out in force in March.

Sales surged 1.6 percent, the Commerce Department said, up from February's revised 0.5 percent gain. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a gain of 1.2 percent.

The increases were across the board. Car dealers, home furnishing stores, building suppliers, sporting goods stores, clothing retailers and general merchandise stores all reported gains. Auto sales surged 6.7 percent, the department said, the most since last October.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/04/13/national/w053401D97.DTL

it will come TRUE - or something to that effect.

You can even hear the clicking of those gosh-darned ruby slippers! It's amazing! :rofl:

Sure beats what we were hearing this time last year.

It is going to take at least two more years for the jobs to come back up to acceptable levels. The economy can't fully recover in months. It takes years.

Some people around here must be really depressed by this.