The services sector, which dominates the U.S. economy relative to manufacturing, grew at a modestly faster pace in February, the Institute for Supply Management reports. The ISM non-manufacturing index rose to 57.3 from 56.8 in January, reaching the highest level since March 2011. Any reading above 50 equates with economic growth and so higher levels imply a strengthening expansion. Today’s news is clearly another reason to remain optimistic, although this is hardly an all-clear signal that blows away other risk factors. Nonetheless, the services sector overall employs most of the labor force in the U.S. and so we have another data point for thinking positively about Friday’s jobs report.

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Amity Shlaes, author of The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression and a Bloomberg columnist, complains that Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has besmirched Milton Friedman’s recommendations for monetary policy. True, but not for the reasons that Shlaes offers.

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