Is The Sky Falling?

The last two weeks we have watched the news cover the wrangling of our government.

Listening to the news, you would think there is nothing right with our country. Last week I had the opportunity to attend a seminar presented by First Trust with their economist, Brian Wesbury.

Wesbury is one of the economists I follow. Since the market downturn of 2008 and 2009, Wesbury has said there are good things happening in our country. What are those good things? Well you don’t see them covered in our media.

Did you know we are well on our way to being energy independent? Did you know the U.S. will be a major EXPORTER of energy in the next decade?

How is this possible? By the creativity and ingenuity that free markets thrive on. A new means of extracting oil have been developed; the horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Oil is being accessed in areas that were previously not feasible to drill with old technology. Improvements continue to be made with new innovations such as recycling the water used in fracking. The time it takes to develop a well has shrunk from 53 days to 26 days.

Of course it is easier to get a well opened on private land. It takes 10-27 days to get permits; depending on which state you are in. Federal lands it took 105 days in 2005. In 2012, it took 307 days.

Homebuilding is on the rise. We have been well below the 1.5 million average home starts in the last few years. A shortage of inventory is occurring in cities across the nation.

Home prices are also rising. Kiplinger’s Washington letter confirms this. Boise is one of the hot spots in the nation for real estate, according to Kiplinger.

Another bright spot is the manufacturing that is returning to the U.S. New plants are being built; companies are refurbishing or expanding existing operations. The auto industry is a part of that manufacturing growth.

3D printing is one new innovation being developed and will some day be a house hold printer like laser printers are today. Breakthroughs are happening in medicine; using your own stem cells to repair your body.

So is the sky falling? If you live in bankrupt cities like Detroit, it may feel like it. Yet there is growth occurring across the country. Some states like North Dakota have a 2% unemployment rate.

The U.S. economy is growing in spite of the Federal government. Imagine what we could do if the dysfunction in government didn’t interfere.

Securities and advisory services through KMS Financial Services, Inc.