Editorial: Recovery is sure, but won't be fast

The economy is on the road to recovery, but it's a long road. And improvements in the jobless rate will be the last milepost reached.

That's the consensus of many economists, and it's shared by our state senator, Roy Herron of Dresden, now a candidate for Congress.

Herron presented an upbeat assessment here Monday in what he billed as a Jobs Listening Tour across his nine-county district.

"I strongly believe better days are coming," he said, but added a gloomier note about the federal deficit: "If you're not scared, you just haven't been paying attention."

His fiscal outlook is similar to that of the National Association for Business Economics, released Monday in Chicago.

‘We see a healthy expansion under way, though it will take time to reduce economic slack and repair damaged balance sheets," that group's president said.

The nation should see a gain in jobs beginning this quarter, but it will be slow, the association's report said.

By the fourth quarter, it predicts, the national jobless rate will decline only to 9.6 percent. That jibes with a Federal Reserve estimate.

Herron ticked off specific reasons for his belief that the regional economy will improve, items such as transportation, education, taxes and people power.

The basic message from several directions: Hang tough. The sun will come out tomorrow.