The national economy is fabulous. Unemployment here is only 2.2 percent. Business is good everywhere ... except for real estate.

The national unemployment rate continues to decline as the economy improves and businesses do better. Companies need to hire at a faster rate this year. That's making it easier for (students) to find employment.

The right to suffer is one of the joys of a free economy. [Commenting on the unemployment situation in Detroit]

It's very hard to describe an economy with the lowest unemployment rate in the world as in recession.

That ain't bad. In our humble forecasting, we've been predicting a gradual decrease in unemployment. Business executives have been reporting to us they feel as though their region is coming out of a slow-growth business environment. It's not rampant optimism, but for the fi rst time in a number of years, executives from every corner of the state are showing more optimism for growth.

This was not good news for the economy. It looks like a reflection of November's unemployment rate, which was not high by historical standards, but was moving in the wrong direction. Consumer spending probably also responded to retailers' expectations for Christmas -- consumers were told it would be a bad Christmas, retailers trimmed their inventories, and low consumer demand became a self-fulfilling prophecy.