The economy is getting better, and much faster than expected, that's according to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

On NBC's Meet the Press, Geithner said the country is on its way to sustained job creation.  We talked with a local expert today, and Karr Ingham agrees.

He says we've been seeing months of increased job growth, and more confidence in consumer spending.

He says, for Amarillo, that means, if things continue, we could be out of the woods by next year. "Amarillo entered into a recession almost a full year after the national economy, so we can expect there to be some lag time on the way as well, I'm not sure it will be a full year. But, let's say the national economy actually bottomed out and began to recover in the 3rd quarter of 2009, we might look for the begging sign of recovery maybe in the second quarter of 2010. I'm certainly hopeful that that's the case," said Karr Ingham, a Happy State Bank Economist.

Ingham continued, saying while the unemployment rate is higher than it's been, that factor is laging one, meaning, it's one of the last things to recover.