When Sweet Statistics Clash With a Sour Mood - New York Times

When Sweet Statistics Clash With a Sour Mood - New York Times: "'In the first quarter of 2006, the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 5.3 percent, the fastest growth in two and a half years,' he said, as Mr. Paulson, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, looked on. 'We added 5.2 million new jobs since August of 2003. The national unemployment rate is down to 4.7 percent. Productivity is high, and that's leading to higher wages and a higher standard of living for the American people.'
Yet in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, only 28 percent of the respondents said they approved of President Bush's handling of the economy, while 66 percent disapproved — the worst such ratings of his presidency. Only 6 percent rated the economy as very good, while 46 percent said it was fairly bad or very bad. And consumer confidence plummeted last month, according to the Conference Board."