After the election, an economic turnaround?

Just in time to offer no help for beleaguered Democrats, a new batch of economic data suggests brighter days ahead

Published November 3, 2010 8:06PM (EDT)

A "Now Hiring" sign in the window of a GNC store in Boston.
A "Now Hiring" sign in the window of a GNC store in Boston.

How's this for some perverse, twisted irony? On Tuesday, voters cited worry about the economy as their primary concern. Throw away the conflicting ideologies battling for supremacy: The simplest explanation for yesterday's results is that incumbent parties always suffer when the economy is down.

But on Wednesday, a batch of new economic indicators offered more scope for optimism than we've seen all year.

Throw into the mix the Federal Reserve's announcement that, in a long overdue attempt to stimulate the economy, it will buy $600 billion worth of U.S. Treasuries over the next year, and maybe, just maybe, we're seeing the beginnings of a sustained, robust recovery.

Or maybe not. But it would be funny, in a soul-destroying, joy-crushing kind of way, if the U.S. economy finally started to get off the sickbed just when voters ruthlessly punished Democrats for failing to revive the patient.


By Andrew Leonard

Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21.

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2010 Elections How The World Works U.s. Economy