It is hard to see and there are certainly too many individual cases of which it does not apply, but for the first time in years the United States economy is actually showing signs of sustainable growth.

Unemployment is down to 8.3 percent from its great recession high of 10 percent in October 2009. The Dow Jones industrial average has almost doubled since February 2009. The country’s gross domestic product has grown every quarter for the last 10 quarters. Personal income in 2011 was about 4.7 percent higher than the level it was at in 2010, which was 3.7 percent greater than 2009. And there are many more indicators that point toward an economy on the rebound.

Still, Republicans continue to attack President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, saying that the recovery is not fast enough. It is true some areas still do not show signs of growth. The housing market is still in a slump, retail sales lag behind expectations and some predict gas prices could break $5 this summer. But while low, these areas do show signs of a turnaround.

Had it not been for government intervention, companies like General Motors would likely be out of business, and many of its 266,000 employees would be out of work. Instead, the company has taken back the title of industry leader from foreign competitor Toyota and has paid back half of the government’s $50 billion bailout.

‘The national unemployment rate (when Obama was inaugurated) was about 9.5 percent. Without the stimulus, it would have been 11.5 percent, said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics and a campaign adviser for John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid. Though expectations for the success may have been too high, Zandi maintains ‘the stimulus did exactly what it was intended to do. It was to end the recession and jump start a recovery and it did that.’

It is true unemployment may not yet show true signs of growth, but there are so many factors used to gauge the economy that we must focus on others as well. When taken as a whole, things do not seem so grim. By focusing on these negatives, though, Republicans are only suppressing the market’s bullish sectors.

Looking across the Atlantic, I cannot help thinking of just how bad the economic recovery could have been. As a whole, the European Union’s unemployment rate actually rose to 9.6 percent this year, from 9.2 percent last year. The unemployment rate for those under age 25 is as high as 41.6 percent in the hardest hit countries like Spain.

In China, inflation is on the rise, hitting about 4.5 percent last month. At the same time, the country’s economic growth is actually predicted to decline by 8 percent this quarter.

Tom Feran of PolitiFact.com, a website that attempts to take a nonpartisan view to prove or disprove claims made by political figures, says ‘how strong or weak economic recovery has progressed may all boil down to whether one views the glass as half empty or half full.’

Republicans see the glass as half-empty and want to make a monumental shift to harsh austerity measures rather than help out those who were hardest hit in this time of need. Do they not see the riots in the streets of Athens?

Three years ago, we would all agree that the glass was basically empty. Today, it seems as if it is slowly, but surely, being refilled. Instead of starting back from zero, we should stay the course and continue to build on the many areas of success. Soon, we will have a strong economy that will not be pulled down by Europe and can then begin talks about responsible government spending.

Stephen Fox is a graduate student studying for his master’s degree in entrepreneurship and a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. His columns appear weekly. He can reached at smfox03@syr.edu. 

Published on February 16, 2012 at 12:00 pm