The US economy continues its pattern of stagnation, and once again economists got fooled into thinking that it had changed. According to a new Bureau of Economic Analysis advance report, gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annualized rate of 1.2% in the second quarter, beating the last two quarters but falling far short of estimates. Markets had predicted a GDP increase of 2.6% — itself no great shakes:Real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 1.2 percent in the second quarter of 2016 (table 1), according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP increased 0.8 percent (revised).The Bureau emphasized that the second-quarter advance estimate released today is based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see “Source Data for the Advance Estimate” on page 2). The “second” estimate for the second quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on August 26, 2016.The Q2 report also has downward revisions to Q1, especially in gross domestic income (GDI). Some economists consider GDI a better measure of economic growth, but in Q1 it didn’t matter much either way. The new report revised Q1 GDI from +2.9% to +0.9%, which might make the argument that we should stick with GDP after all. As noted above, Q1 GDP got revised from 1.1% to 0.8%.Just how long has it been since we’ve seen decent quarterly growth? It’s been two years since the US economy produced an annualized growth rate of 3% or better:
Weakest expansion since 1949.
The Most Equal Comrade and all his economic advisors and Treasury Department pointy-heads past and present - Jack Lew, Austin Goolsbee, Timothy Geithner et al - are not idiots. They had to know their policies were going to result in stagnation. But wedded as they were to their vision of "fairness" and a strong government role in the nation's economic activity, they were incapable of rearranging their priorities.
And so here we are.
Takes time which is no crime. Things are a lot better than when O took office . You are so full of Danesh crap it's not funny
ReplyDeleteWeakest expansion since 1949.
ReplyDeleteDinesh makes great movies.
Oh I am sure Trump will be running his billionaire prescription for a cure. Worst recession since 1929.
ReplyDeleteI thought you believed govt had no role to play in job creation. I know, I know, you would shove a freer market up our posteriors, which is what started this whole downhill slide to your detested (and false) post-America. A lot of folks still have some shred of hope. Which will flower.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you hate freedom so?
ReplyDeleteFind the cost of that kind freedom, drive through your old hometown. What I'm saying is, these rabid anti socialists don't care what pain they inflict on the other humans that depended upon them in their own country. Is that really freedom when you damage so many other people and give it all away to strangers in foreign land just to pad your coffers? It' OK, they'll be done with them too when the robots come en masse.
ReplyDeleteIn reality, many of the offshore ops are coming back because accellerated automation has enabled them to get by where they'd prefer to stateside because it's more convenient for them/theirs. Guess what, no humans required at all. Mo money!
ReplyDeleteAhh but it's just like you and your ilk to awfulize and marginalize. Me, hating freedom? Come on, man. I do have a different definition though I guess. I saw the freedom we fought to preserve in Viet Nam. It involved lots of blood, guts, fears and tears. The attempt at a cure was so much worse than the supposed disease. Our creator who endowed us with inalianable rights endowed us all with them. His supposed Son supposedly said blessed are the peacemakers, but I guess he did not specify how the peace was to be made. A lot of us think war is not the answer. But your ilk doesn't even want to come to the table. You want to own the table and keep it for yourselves. All men are endowed with certain inalianable rights. Life is the first one. Now don't go telling me I hate little babies in the womb. Call my views skewed, but they're my views and I'm sticking to them until they change, but they are unlikely to involve human killing in any form. I suppose it will continue to happen, but don't look at me for doing it. And, oh, I will kill a radical terrorist if I know they are one and I'm in a position to do so, but I don't carry weaponry. I will look to those who are free to do so in my book. I'm a 2nd amendment man too. Just a passing fancy in a human dream. Aren't we all?
ReplyDeleteI thought this post was about the current state of the economy.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I did ask you why you hate freedom, which is admittedly a very broad question.
But let's keep the present stop confined to the economic realm.
No one has a right to a job. Economic eras come and go as technology, demographics and culture changes. But the underlying basics, starting with the fact that a good or service is worth what buyer and seller agree that it is worth, period, do not change. Those underlying facts are the only way anyone is going to prosper regardless of robots or immigration or any other constantly shifting factor.
So when there are no jobs, what's next? A free for all, survival of the fittest? Make the jungle great again? And the current state of the economy is a whole lot better than it was 8 years ago today. Remember? Since Obama took office shortly after the meltdown, your ilk has been trying to shove the abysmally slow economy up his rear. Sore losers. Why didn't Cheney run if things were so great. He, like you, must have preferred to gripe about it, totally stripped of power unless it's his bucks and past peanut galleries who parrot him.
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