Telling It Straight.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

Prosperity: This is shaping up to be one of the most re- markable periods in U.S. economic history. Yet, to read the papers, you'd think we were in the midst of a bust.

We've written about this a lot lately, if for no other reason than the media's anti-good news bias seems particularly pronounced of late.

An objective observer would be hard-pressed to find major fault with the economy right now. To IBD readers, it's a familiar litany: First, a record stock-market crash that wiped out $7 trillion of investor wealth virtually overnight. Then a recession. Then a doubling of oil prices. Then a quadrupling of interest rates.

Yet, the economy -- as Wednesday's data showed -- isn't just walking. It's sprinting. The Commerce Department reported that GDP in the third quarter rose at a 4.3% annual rate -- despite Hurricane Katrina and soaring gasoline prices.

Other, more current, indicators look equally good. The National Retail Federation reported this week that in the first weekend of the Christmas season, sales jumped 22% from a year ago.

Meanwhile, home sales continued to set records -- even as experts kept warning of an imminent pop in the housing-market "bubble." Unemployment has edged down to 5%, core inflation is a low 2% and consumer confidence is rallying as energy prices ease.

This is the reality. So is this underreported fact: Americans now have a net worth of $50 trillion, twice the level of 10 years ago, plus a whopping $5.3 trillion in savings and money market accounts, ready to spend. We are richer than ever.