Consumer Confidence in the United States the Highest in Four Years

Fueled by optimism in the job market, the closely-watched Consumer Confidence Index rose from 68.4 to 72.2 last month. The index is at its highest point since February 2008, when the country was beginning to feel the effects of the Great Recession that had begun several months earlier.

Home Building Up 15% in the United States

I don't know about the rest of the world, but home building in the United States is up 15%, according to data released this morning. Builders in the U.S. started new homes at an annual rate of 872,000 homes last month. They also filed new permits an an annual pace of 894,000, up 11.6% from the 801,000 rate the previous month. Perhaps the United States is the only country in the world on such a fast pace, but at least in America, both readings are the best since the summer of 2008, when things began to fall apart due to the Iraq War which caused a spike in gas prices that crippled families and businesses alike and led to massive foreclosures, a meltdown in the financial markets, and put the United States on the brink of collapse.

Obama Floors Romney

This was a much different, and, truth be told, a better debate than the first one.  Unlike that first debate, President Barack Obama didn't allow misstatements and untruths told by challenger Mitt Romney go unchallenged.  And on the final response of the night, Obama floored Romney by using his own words against him.  

What is incredible is that Romney walked right into it; he served up a big fat softball underhand, and Obama knocked it out of the stadium.  Romney himself brought up the topic when he said that he cared about 100% of the population.  All Obama had to do at that point was remind debate watchers that Romney was the one who said 47% of the country (veterans, students, and retired people) were lazy and did not pay enough taxes.  It was an easy task, but one that had to be made.

Retails Sales Up 1.1%

Retail sales in the United States bumped up 1.1%, showing continued improvement before the all-import Christmas season.  That has led stocks higher initially, although the stock market has been bothered since Mitt Romney won the first presidential debate.  Since that time, the Dow Jones has plummeted nearly 300 points.  A strong showing by President Barack Obama in the second debate this week could reverse that trend, however.

Consumer Confidence in United States Up

It's just been a horrible last two weeks for Mitt Romney. First, his ill-conceived remarks on the crisis in Libya and Egypt, heretofore off limits for political candidates to speak out against U.S. foreign policy. Then, the ill-conceived remark that he doesn't care about 47% of the people in the country. Then, the release of his one tax return (rather than 10 years of returns, which is customary for presidential candidates), which not only raised more questions than it asked, but showed him paying just 14% in income tax, less than millions of American families at a time in which the fundraiser tape shows how much he disdains Americans who pay no tax (such as senior citizens and high school and college students).

On top of all that, we get news that the unemployment situation is getting better, businesses are hiring more, home sales are up nearly 30% over last year and home prices are up. And today, the report came out that consumer confidence rose in September, as renewed optimism about the job market gave the indicator a boost.

Renewed optimism, something the Democrats spoke up often during their National Convention. Renewed optimism, a phrase Romney and the Republicans hate.

The Consumer Confidence Index measures how Americans feel about the economy, and it jumped from an upwardly revised 61.3 in August to 70.3 in September, a jump of 14.68%. Economists expected the reading to be 63, so the figure surprised even those who study it closely.

U.S. Companies Add 201,000 New Jobs

Private companies added 201,000 new jobs last month, much better than the 143,000 jobs economists expected.

The economy needs to add about 150,000 jobs per month to keep pace with the growing population. Anything above that lowers the unemployment rate. Construction was once again one of the key elements of the job picture with 10,000 new jobs, its biggest gain since March. If people can afford new houses and new businesses, there's nothing in the economy that they can't afford.

Which essentially means that the U.S. economy is back. But in another excellent sign, a report by firm Challenger, Gray, & Christmas showed that planned job cuts in the U.S. hit a 20-month low.

U.S. Home Prices Up Again

For the third straight month, home prices in all 20 major markets in the United States are up, this time to the level they were nine years ago.

According to the S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index, which covers more than 80% of the U.S. housing market, the average home price rose 1.6% over the already-increasing price from last month.

In other words, if you were waiting to buy a house to get the best possible price, you waited too long. If you're selling your price, you'll do better than you did eight years ago.