Given enough money, a man, no matter how ugly he is, can find a wife. A woman needs beauty and charm above all, if not, perhaps a big dowry would help. 😉
In terms of the crumbling housing market “most of the action has already played out,” Edward Lazear, chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters.
Still, weakness in the housing sector will be probably visible in the months ahead, he said. “But hopefully that will end in the relatively near future and we’ll be able to move back to a period of positive economic growth in the housing sector,” he added.
The White House expects the economy to log fairly solid growth for all of 2006 – just over 3 percent – despite the cooldown in the once- sizzling housing market this year. Next year, the Bush administration believes that economic growth will slow slightly to around 2.9 percent and then pick up the following year.
Of the housing slump, Lazear said, “it looks like the precipitous decline that we saw earlier is not going to occur in 2007.”
He also struck a hopeful note that energy prices will be more stable next year. Surging energy prices in the spring of this year were a factor in belt tightening by consumers and businesses, which slowed overall economic activity. Later in the year, energy prices dropped but have since crept up a bit.
The volatility in energy prices this year was “an anomaly” that Lazear said he didn’t expect to be repeated next year.
Looking ahead when the Democratic-controlled Congress, convenes in early January, Lazear said the White House will continue to press lawmakers to make Bush’s tax cuts permanent. Asked whether tax increases could plunge the economy into recession, Lazear replied “absolutely” and said he would be concerned about their “very detrimental effects.”
