[SeekAndFind]

The author also is not impressed with the concern that housing prices are still weak.

He agrees that the rate of home purchases may have compromised GDP growth.

However he believes an argument can be made that if the price of a less vibrant housing market results in a lower, artificially constructed GDP number, then lower prices today is a GOOD THING.

In the author’s opinion -— What would be more troublesome is if sales continued to increase on the way to a higher GDP calculation. We tried to make housing central to our economic health and energy very recently and our efforts ended in tears, along with the unfortunate bailout of the economic actors engaging in what was economy-sapping activity.

[frogjerk]

sectors reliant on the production of goods that could easily be made for us overseas.

Made in America vs. Made in China. Which is the better product overall.

I choose America.

[pnh102]

Sadly, government spending is included in GDP numbers. Of course we know that government spending works against the economy because that money came from someone else who would have spent it more efficiently.

I wonder how much of that 1.6% growth came from truly private spending or investment.

[Spartan79]

The linked article is compleat economic gibberish.

[ClearCase_guy]

rational thinkers would be more concerned with rising, as opposed to falling manufacturing activity ... a great deal of growth in the factory sector would suggest a move toward falling profit margins and economic backwardness.

Yeah, if we had humming factories, we'd be in bad shape. Thankfully, most of our manufacturing plants have been shuttered. Whoo-Hoo! [/s]

[ScottinVA]

1.6%: Weak GDP Does Not a Weak Economy Make

All throughout the Bush Administration, even through the heady growth years of the mid-2000s, libs insisted we were in a "recession" or teetering on one. Now that one of their own is in the WH, suddenly, 1.6% growth doesn't sound so bad.

How about 9.5% (17% actual) unemployment?

What about $13.2T in debt, building at a rate of $1.3T per year?

Sure no shortage of idiots, is there?

[andy58-in-nh]

Anyone who can pen a 900-word article on the US economy and not once find a use for the word “debt” - is missing the proverbial 900 lb. gorilla in the room.

[ltc8k6]

Auto sales are in the dumper. 28 year low...

http://www.streetinsider.com/Insiders+Blog/Auto+Sales+Expected+at+28+Year+Low/5933957.html

[anniegetyourgun]

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

They are so confused as to why their Liberal/Marxist/Socialist ideology has not created the Utopia they were so absolutely certain would have spread across the World by now.

We tried to warn them that it has never worked, can never work and WILL never work. The reasons are so simple. So simple in fact, that they will never see it for what it truly is. That is because they are not capable of simple, honest and moral thought and they refuse to adjust their amoral ideology to match the unchangeable moral laws established throughout the Universe.

[ILS21R]

"So while President Obama should certainly be criticized for policies that create barriers to economic activity, the use of GDP to unleash the criticism weakens the argument altogether."

Criticized? Try impeached.

[Doohickey]

John Tamny thinks everyone should be a “journalist” like him.

[jnsun]

What this article is saying in so many words is that abstracted generalized indices, such as GDP, or CPI, are virtually worthless. They are contrived playthings of pseudo-intellectual economists with an intrinsic desire to gain personal (juvenile) importance through sophistry. If one as an "economic" journalist gets paid to write such criticisms, one can easily make a career, albeit an empty one, from such, for there are no solutions.

The same goes for the "inflation" versus "deflation" argument. A selected algorithm can arrive at either result, say throwing in "housing," throwing out "energy," or whatever, all while the material prosperity, quality of life, and optimistic attitude, of the legitimate US taxpaying citizen is plummeting.

Is it not obvious now that academic economists, ala Obama's regime and planet wide Nobel-level (Krugman), have absolutely no idea what they are talking about?

The United States as "fortress America," could be paradise, not isolationist but conscientious; but the globalists, ala Rockefeller, Soros, and the Jewish world-Left (sinister), will fight to the end for this to not be. They atone for their own Greed through Obama's subversion and other people's money. That's why anti-Sarah.

Think in terms of John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Democratic Senator of WV, a State for which he has NO empathy or connection, serving as infinitely financed, and (Harvard) elitist, majority Senator. God-is-Money has brought us here.

How obvious is it?

Johnny Suntrade, the Suntrade Institute

[Nervous Tick]

>> Politicians and economic commentators love to romanticize manufacturing, and their elevation of it is most likely evidence that they’ve never worked in a factory before. &etc bla bla bla

That paragraphload of BS exposes the author as one who is pretty ignorant of manufacturing in America himself.

[BfloGuy]

Tamny's one of the better economic commentators, but he's not always right.

Despite the fact that manufacturing comprises a smaller percentage of GDP than it used to, it is still crucially important. An increase in manufacturing is a necessary precursor to recovery and the wealth created by manufacturing allows the rest of the economy to function.

I do, however, agree with him on the imports. Increasing imports can be a sign of recovery. Don't forget that many of those imports are not cheap trinkets from China but crucial raw materials and technology for industry.

He's also right that GDP is a terrible measure of the economy's health. Just the fact that increased government spending can make GDP appear stronger is enough to distrust it.

[CodeToad]

Take away the trillions in debt spending by the governments and what is the GDP? Negative. Highly negative.