Posted on 04/29/2015 7:11:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The U.S. economy all but ground to a halt in the first quarter this year, with businesses cutting investment, consumers pulling back spending and exports falling. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, expanded at a 0.2% seasonally adjusted annual rate, well below economists’ expectations of 1%. Economists on Wednesday weighed in:
“In an entirely unsurprising turn of events, first quarter GDP was weaker than expected, growing just 0.2% as compared to the 1.0% rate expected. To repeat a refrain of ours, weakness in the first-quarter GDP report is not exclusive to 2015; we’ve seen this for the entire recovery….Our working assumption is that this quarter, like previous first quarters, will be the year’s low point and the economy should accelerate from here. Admittedly, the data does not yet support the type of snapback seen in 2014, but more growth is better than less and we expect that to occur this year.” –Dan Greenhaus, BTIG
“You were forewarned. First-quarter economic activity was not pretty. But that was pretty ugly. Real GDP in the first quarter barely registered a gain, rising just 0.2% annualized, the slowest pace since the polar-vortex quarter a year ago. (And before that, the fourth quarter of 2012.) But the positive takeaway is that all of the temporary factors that held activity back were just that–temporary. And the second quarter is widely expected to rebound.” –Jennifer Lee, BMO Capital Markets
“The U.S. economy all but stagnated in the first quarter, as lower energy prices triggered a big drop in mining investment, but did little to boost consumer spending because of the impact of the unseasonably cold winter in the Northeast.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
These guys remind me of Harry Truman’s lament that someday, he’d like to meet a two-handed economist - they are always saying, “on the other hand . . .”.
Until there is a catastrophic event which causes a complete “reset” on the debt, which will also be catastrophic in itself, we will never again see normal, market driven rates. It is mathematically impossible.
But there’s no way they’ll let it be reported that the number is negative.
They blame weather and a strike.
My band plays at a local club that never has much of a crowd. The first time they said there was a local event that was sucking people away. The second time there was a big basketball game that night. Then the weather.
We finally figured out that we were seeing how big their crowd was.
There is always something. So the “something” is not the problem.
What was the state by state growth?
But don’t forget the good news: Recovery Summer VII is right around the corner!
I truly do not know what these economists expect? They are quite literally the dumbest smart people on the Earth. We have an administration that is openly hostile to the free market, criminals destroying the market infrastructure without consequence, a congress that desires to tax them to oblivion coupled with the salient business crushing issue of raising the minimum wage, and a legal system that will destroy any business that has a moral and/or ethical backbone.
What could possibly go wrong?
When revised it will be negative.
Blame it on a strike while, at the same time, they are doing everything that they possibly can to revive unions?
These guys are too much.
They did this last year, too. Now they’ll revise it down even more. Then the next quarter’s numbers will appear in comparison to be huge growth.
We all know by now that government statistics are political and have been politicized.
If wages haven’t grown and participation in employment hasn’t increased, then things are bad. The government is hiding all that with numbers that are fudged.
LOL-
yep, I remember all the “recovery summers”
And the Recovery “Christmas Seasons”
And now for ...drum roll....
the employment numbers!!- they are great!
the unemployment percentage - FALLING like Crazy!!
The sheep are pretty contented- except when Drug THUGS
get killed-
(I have LOCKED a huge pecentage of my portfolio-
hope the U.S. can weather the communists that are in charge)
When did we not look at a growing economy as good thing and a non growth in the economy as a problem?
>> Yet, we are told repeatedly that the economy is back
If you long for the return of the days when talking heads told you how BAD the economy is... just wait around for a non-’Rat POTUS to be elected.
It seems that I read a lot of financial articles on various websites that have lately all started with something like the following:
"Even though the economy is growing again, many still find themselves without a job..." or, "401(k) balances are back to all-time highs, even though many people have lost their jobs and no longer have access to a savings' plan..."
They always seem to tow the line that the economy has improved, while at the same time, they underscore the caveat that many have not felt the effects of the improvement. If the economy has improved, surely more would be enjoying it.
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