Gloom And Boom.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

Economy: It's nearly impossible to escape the daily barrage of ugly economic news. Listening to it all, you'd never guess we're in the middle of a remarkable boom.

If you told us five years ago that the U.S. would encounter a stock crash to rival 1929, a missile attack on New York City, the de facto start of World War III, a doubling of oil prices and a series of new interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and, at the end of it all, the economy would be humming along at a noninflationary 4% clip, we'd have thought you were daft.

Such a scenario, we'd have said, was about as likely as the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series in four games.

Yet, as the Sox showed, miracles happen. And make no mistake, the U.S. economy is something of a miracle. It's performing far better than the conventional wisdom -- and even most of the unconventional wisdom -- would have led us to believe.

But only now is this starting to dawn on people. Some in the media, for example, still refer to what's going on as a "recovery." Somebody please tell them that the recession ended three years ago, in November 2001.

As we often say, just look at the data.

Since President Bush took office, real GDP has risen more than 10% to $10.89 trillion. In the most recent quarter, it grew a faster-than-expected 3.9%, thanks to resurgent business investment.