There is, of course, more than media coverage behind the cheerfulness. The economy is in great shape. Last month's slight uptick in unemployment cannot obscure the fact that everyone who wants a job has or can have one, save those outside the labour market for reasons that even the boomingest boom cannot correct. Americans are building houses on a grander scale than ever, buying giant cars, preparing to holiday in record numbers, and watching their wealth grow as the Dow moves ever upwards. Better still, the cloud that usually accompanies this silver lining is nowhere to be seen.
Inflation is quiescent, as last week's news of a decline in the producer price index proves.
Think back to the early 1960s. The early 1960s were Camelot come true. It took Reagan to bring morning back to America, and to raise the cost of remaining in the cold-war game to levels that forced the Soviet Union to throw in its hand. And a few are on the horizon. Or Clinton, who has decided he was being economical with the truth when he said the age of big government was over, might succeed with his plans to expand the welfare state to include big federal spending on education and on Medicare coverage for the merely middle-aged, and a childcare programme that will surely grow in cost.