WASHINGTON - U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Wednesday he is optimistic the nation's economy is strong and that businesses will soon start hiring to meet rising orders.
"I'm mighty optimistic about this economy -- we haven't changed the basic laws of economics. When businesses see their order books fill up, when the cash register is jingling, businesses want to expand, and they expand and they hire people," Snow said in an interview with Fox Television.
"They're starting to see those order books fill up, they're starting to see the cash registers jingle, and as that happens and continues to happen, they're going to expand their businesses because by expanding, by hiring people, by growing, they create more profits for those businesses."
Snow said stronger-than-expected data on factory orders and home sales released earlier on Wednesday boded well for hiring.
"You don't get jobs until you get the economy growing. When you get the sort of numbers on durables and new home sales that you're getting today, jobs are going to follow. This economy has really turned the corner and jobs will follow," he said.
The Commerce Department said orders for big-ticket durable goods advanced 2.5 percent in February after falling a revised 2.7 percent in January. The number was ahead of forecasts of a 1.7 percent rise, but the underlying trend was disappointing because with transportation stripped out, orders declined.
In a separate report, Commerce said sales of new homes rose 5.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted 1.163 million annual pace in February, the fastest pace since August 2003.
Snow also said, in response to a question, that he does not support raising the retirement age for people close to retirement in an effort to save the social security system.
"I don't think -- not for people near retirement," he said.
When asked if he would consider raising the age for younger Americans still far from retirement, Snow said he did not want to "rule anything in or anything out" of a long-term solution.
"I think what we need rather than to proscribe a solution is to get a small bipartisan consensus. This can't be done by the White House alone, it can't be done by Congress alone," Snow said.
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