It's getting better in spite of what "they" keep saying.

The economy appears to be heading up in spite of the doom and gloom from politicians and dismal failings of some college football coaches. Enough of the bad news, folks. We can talk ourselves out of this recession or we can talk ourselves in a deeper one - it's up to us.

The good news is that housing sales are actually up in many parts of the country. Employment numbers are also holding or going up too, including locally in Dayton, Ohio. Black Friday was a boon to retailers. Cyber Monday was super to online merchants. The Federal Reserve just reported that the total consumer debt load is down - and now comes word that auto sales, which drive major parts of the American economy, are up for the last six straight months of year-over-year gains according the The Detroit Bureau. And not only are more cars and trucks being sold, but consumers are paying higher prices for them too - a sign that they can afford it again?

It was Wall Street and Detroit that crashed the economy two years and both appear to be well into the black now and the rest of the economy is moving up too.

Numbers from Chrysler, Ford and GM all show increases in sales. The survey people at JD Power & Asc, who monitor auto retail sales, also reported the increase.

Maybe it's time for all the politicians to leave America alone so it can fix the economy without the bickering sideshow that Congress puts on the network news every night? Maybe, just maybe.

But they are still building cars and some of them come out as lemons, so we're still here too.

North American car manufacturers (US, Canada and Mexico) increased their overall production of new cars and trucks by 9% in the last month to a high of just unde 1.2 million new vehicles, according to numbers just out from Automotive News magazine.

Do you think they see a better economy coming? Probably.

Motor vehicle manufacturers are not stupid. They watch the economy carefully and don't build what they can't sell and don't build when they can't sell it. A lousy economy means fewer buyers on car dealer lots and that means more old inventory sitting around - and manufacturers cut back when that happens. So what's up?

Granted the latest employment report (literally out just hours ago) showed an uptick in employment numbers that was higher than industry experts and doom-sayer pundits thought would happen - and that's good news. In spite of the President's call for the do-nothing Congress to pass his jobs bill - which would itself create thousands of new jobs and boost the economy because of it, conservatives and tea partiers in Washington are refusing to go along with the program, although they have no program of their own.

With employment numbers up, maybe the economy really is getting better.

When we look at inflation numbers reported by InflationData.com for the first 8 months of this year and compare them with the same 8 months from five years ago in 2006, the rate of inflation in every single month is LOWER now than it was then. Granted, the conservatives and tea partiers don't like the current President, but when they were in charge, back in 2006, inflation was a lot worse than it is now.

With inflation numbers actually down, maybe the economy really is getting better.

Looking at household income, there's no doubt that the average person's household income has dropped in the last year, so who are they building all those new cars and trucks for? Well, one answer comes from looking at the sector of the economy that is actually making more money than ever before.



Their profits are back up again

 While the average Joe has seen his paycheck get smaller, there is one segment of the economy that is back to its pre-recession boom times - in fact, their numbers are higher in the last year than they were before the financial meltdown that continues to worry the average Joe.

The rich investment bankers, it seems, are getting richer.

It's reports like that which are causing the sit-in protests that are spreading - but that doesn't explain the upsurge in new cars and trucks being built. All those rich people can't buy all the new cars being built.

The only logical answer is that the vehicle manufacturers have decided that the economy is doing better than the nay-sayers are saying.

Why else would BMW increase its production in one month by 82%? or GM by 20%? or Hyundai-Kia by 48%? or Nissan by 22%? Even Mexico's car plants are building 22% more cars than they did the month before.

Maybe, just maybe, the doom and gloom that the talking heads spew is not so accurate after all. So why is there so much negative talk about the economy making news? There's no doubt that the economy is coming back but the big headline seems to be that it isn't happening as fast as people want. That makes sense when you step back and realize that we have become a "I want it now" society in so many ways.

It takes time for the economy to come back, sure, but there is no way that all the car manufacturers are building and shipping out cars and trucks that they think are going to sit around on dealer lots and gather dust. Detroit (and Canada and Mexico) all seem to think that something very good is coming down the road and it's going to get here sooner than the talking heads on the boob tube are saying.

Maybe that's why our parents called tv the boob tube in the first place. It's a shame more people in this generation don't remember that.

Auto News magazine's European publication is reporting that GM is talking to a Chinese company, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp., BAIC, about buying chunks of the Saab business. BAIC is China's fifth largest automaker.

And why not? After all, it was a Chinese company that bought the Bummer. Sorry, I meant to say Hummer.

At this rate, GM will be left building parts for the Chinese companies that it has sold its business to. Meanwhile, China automakers reported their November sales doubled.

And Opel, General Motors' "other" soon-to-be orphaned company, now says it wants to give GM nearly half a billion dollars in annual wage concessions to stay alive.

Folks, GM's struggle to survive is a long way from over with.

The Penske Auto Group has inked a deal with GM to buy Saturn. Included in the deal will be the brand itself, the parts inventory, and the right to distribute the Saturn vehicle line, which GM apparently will continue to build for another 2 years.

In addition to moving things along for GM, it also means a big sigh of relief for the roughly 360 Saturn dealers who General Motors had announced would be orphaned if a sale did not occur.

A Chinese company has announced its intention to buy the Hummer operation, But that still leaves Pontiac to contend with as GM keeps heading to a leaner operation that it hopes will be more profitable too.

There's no word yet on whether the sales would mean that the new owners would continue to honor the old GM warranties but under bankruptcy law the sales could occur in such a way that all old warranty rights were liquidated. Or not. We'll have to wait and see.

With GM having finally filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, maybe the auto industry and our whole economy can finally stop the dreading and nay-saying and move on. It's about time.

6,000 GM dealers received one of two letters from GM this week, the good one and the bad one. The bad one said "so long" basically. The good one, if you can call it that, set out new expectations for surviving dealers and new requirements too and gave a June 12 deadline to agree "or else" they'd find themselves being included in the bankruptcy and not invited along for the "survival ride" so to speak. Ok, so do it already, GM.

What this economy needs, we suspect, is for everyone to stop talking the doom and gloom trash and start getting over it and moving on.

At a concert in Dayton last night, the musician thanked the crowd for coming out and went on for another half minute or so to talk about the fact that we live in a resilient society in this country and that we will all survive the current economic mess and, perhaps, just keeping that in mind can help us to cope with the present and have more faith in the future. To be sure, we still need to be careful on this rocky road, but he had a good point about keeping in mind that the road does eventually lead us to a better spot.

It's time that Detroit, and the rest of us, turned the page. That starts with each of us. Then, maybe the media will realize that all of us regular folks have heard enough of the negative and tone it down too.

Doubt continues to grow on whether or not GM can avoid bankruptcy very soon. GM is backed into a corner with its well-heeled bond holders not budging and too many creditors clamoring for cash while the feds while away the hours on the doomsday clock.