U.S. Growth Halted as Federal Spending Fell in 4th Quarter (GDP -0.1% )

nyt ^ | January 30, 2013 | NELSON D. SCHWARTZ and BINYAMIN APPELBAUM

[Red Steel]

The federal government helped bring the economic recovery to a virtual halt late last year

-snip-

Disappointing data released Wednesday underscore how tighter fiscal policy may continue to weigh on growth in the future as government spending, which increased steadily in recent decades and expanded hugely during the recession, plays a diminished role in the United States economy.

-snip-

The economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the last three months of 2012, the worst quarter since the economy crawled out of the last recession,

Still, economists said the seemingly bleak gross domestic product report was not a sign that another recession was looming. The preliminary data showed relatively strong spending by consumers and businesses, even as military spending posted its sharpest quarterly drop in 40 years.

Forecasters expect that growth this year will rebound to a still-anemic 1.5 percent, a little lower than the pace it has managed over the last three years.

[junta]

Obamacare going to suck us back into a depression.

[mrsmith]

Counting government spending in the gross domestic product makes it a misleading statistic IMO.
Government spending is not 'productive'.

Gross domestic running in circles would be a better name.

[alloysteel]

Were we ever OUT of a depression from late 2008 on?

The desperation of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was evident even in the very early days of its application, but rather than cancel the program, the principle was applied on a wider and wider scale. All the various bail-outs and the US Treasury being used as a source of venture capital for the “favored” industries, were just a more modern version of the “National Recovery Act” implemented by FDR back in the early years of the original Great Depression.

Interesting, also, that the worst part of the Great Depression came in the SECOND FDR term, in 1938 and lasting until the war industries began cranking up.

[junta]

I agree

[oldbrowser]

Disappointing data released Wednesday underscore how tighter fiscal policy may continue to weigh on growth in the future as government spending, which increased steadily in recent decades and expanded hugely during the recession, plays a diminished role in the United States economy.

"tighter fiscal policy"? Spending a trillion dollars more per year than what we take in is tighter fiscal policy?

We haven't stopped spending yet. How can this be affecting the economy.

The capital that is being sucked out of the economy through taxes and red tape is what is strangling the economy.

[Mike Darancette]

In Other news:

[kearnyirish2]

We have to do our part, in the same manner that Dems are always in campaign mode: live within your means (don’t borrow to buy), and a LOT of Obama supporters feel the pinch. Restaurants and stores close, to be replaced by tattoo parlors and pawn shops hiring a fraction of the employees (the new economy here in the northeast); pay bills online to stop feeding the gubmint postal service beast (I admit I was a latecomer to that one - out of sheer laziness), and shop Wal-Mart (or wherever the price is best). There is nothing wrong with looking out for the well-being of your children with fiscal prudence; the collateral damage is just gravy...