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The U.S. economy nearly stalled in the first quarter as weakness overseas hurt exports and frigid weather curtailed business investment. While the latest figures are "certainly eye catching, we do not find it to be representative of the underlying health of the U.S. economy," said Richard Moody, chief economist at Regions Financial Corp. "Anyone tempted to panic ... should just take a breath." The latest numbers continue a familiar pattern. The nation's economic recovery, which started in mid-2009, has been marked as much for its choppiness as its slow pace.

Growth in the U.S. economy slowed to a miserly 0.1% annual pace in the first quarter from 2.6% at the end of 2013, a bout of weakness spurred by one of the worst winters in years. Consumer spending, the main driver of the U.S. economy, actually rose 3% after a strong 3.3% gain in the fourth quarter, but the increase was driven mostly by higher outlays on utilities and health care, according to preliminary data released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday. Yet business investment on equipment, another key economic cog, fell 5.5% to mark the biggest drop in almost...

You know it’s bad when CNBC admits they thought our GDP growth was a misprint:

Spending on health care grew an astounding 9.9% in the Bureau of Economic Analysis' advance estimate of first-quarter GDP. It's the biggest percent change in health-care spending since 1980, when health-care spending jumped 10% in the third quarter. Analysts said it's primarily due to a consumption boost from the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Adjusted for inflation, America is spending more on health care than ever before.Personal consumption grew by 3.0%, about half of which was due to the growth in health-care spending, said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist for Pantheon Macroeconomics. "If health-care spending had been unchanged, the headline GDP growth number would have...

If we expect another pivot from the White House, don’t expect it to be on the economy. The first quarter of 2014 turned into a turkey that barely avoided a decline, with annualized GDP growth coming it at a mere 0.1% in the advance estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis: Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the first quarter (that is, from the fourth quarter of 2013 to the first quarter of 2014), according...

The U.S. economy slowed in the first quarter to one of the weakest paces of the five-year recovery as the frigid winter appeared to have curtailed business investment and weakness overseas hurt exports. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, advanced at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.1% in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast growth at a 1.1% pace for the quarter. The broad slowdown to start the year halted what had been improving economic momentum during much of 2013....

On Wednesday, everyone on Wall Street will be talking about the weather. No, it’s not going to snow. But snow will be important to the discussion because Wednesday is when the Commerce Department will release its advanced look at the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the first three months of 2014. And the GDP is going to be awful. The only debate right now is about the degree of awfulness.

China's GDP grew 7.4% in the first quarter amid growing evidence that the powerhouse economy is easing offThe new railway station being built in Shenyang, Liaoning province. Investment in fixed assets dipped in the first quarter. China's annual economic growth slowed to its lowest for nearly a quarter of a century between January and March to 7.4% from 7.7% in the previous three months.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week and touched its lowest level in nearly four months, suggesting the labor market was strengthening. A separate report showed U.S. economic growth was a bit faster than previously estimated in the fourth quarter, displaying underlying strength that could bolster views that the slowdown in activity early in the year would be temporary. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits declined 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 311,000, the lowest level since November, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the week ended March 15 were revised to...

A new report from Morgan Stanley chief economist Vincent Reinhart and his team paints a picture of a new economic normal that features GDP growth of just 2%, half a percent lower than previous estimates. Part of the cause for this adjustment, according to the report is: “In the past few years, population growth has declined, labor force participation is on a secular downtrend, and productivity is increasing at a slower clip.” ************ In short a lower participation rate leads to a slower growth economy and if the former isn’t changing, and Kenny doesn’t think it will, the latter can’t...

In March 2013, the U.S. government invented a new way of calculating GDP. The Financial Times reported that starting from July 2013, U.S. GDP would become 3% bigger due to a change in statistics. As this adjustment in GDP calculation is pretty significant, I will discuss the new items in the U.S. GDP, what the consequences are and how investors should act on this revision in statistics.GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports), orThe government made a significant change in the gross investment number (I), which now includes R&D spending, art, music, film...

The U.S. economy grew at a 2.4 percent annualized rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday, revising down its initial estimate of a 3.2 percent increase in the nation's economic performance. The drop in fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth was largely due to a smaller-than-expected boost from Americans buying bit-ticket items such as autos. Consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. economy, slowed to a 2.6 percent rise from 3.3 percent in the third quarter. Export, inventory accumulation and government spending also contributed to the downward revision in GDP. Capital Economics' Paul Ashworth now...

Goldilocks wrote: So how are beginning workers and poor people supposed to advance economically? Obama Wage Hike is Obamacare by 'Other Means' Dear Comrade Goldi, I can tell you one way to make it more difficult for “beginning workers and poor people” to advance. If you raise the minimum wage, they’ll be likely to be hurt worst, first. People advance economically by gaining experience and thus bringing more value to an employer, not by passing capricious laws. According to a BLS survey done in 2011, only 5 percent of workers who make hourly wages are at or below the federal...

This Map Shows How The GDP Of US States Compare To Countries Around The World Michael Kelley Feb. 4, 2014, 7:27 AM      Feb. 4, 2014, 7:27 AM BI contributor Randy Olson passed along this map, created by reddit user Phaenthi, that presents U.S. states and corresponding countries with similar GDP. Olson, who moderates the subreddit DataisBeautiful, noted that the map is not adjusted for population size "e.g., Minnesota has a population of ~5.5 million and Nigeria has a population of ~175 million." California is the obvious powerhouse, with a GDP of about $2 trillion in...

The government said GDP rose 3.2% in the last three months of 2013 -- one of the fastest rates since the end of the recession, though slower than the third quarter's 4.1%. Still, that sounds good, until you remember this: Employers only added 74,000 jobs in December -- one of the worst months in nearly three years. Stronger economic growth is supposed to equal more jobs. So what gives? It does appear that the normal relationship between jobs and GDP has broken down. In the first half of 2013, for instance, GDP growth was at 1.9% and employers added an...

The charts above are based on new data from the United Nations on GDP and its components for more than 200 countries, updated through 2012. Here are some highlights of the UN’s data update:1. The top chart compares the annual manufacturing output from 1970 to 2012 (measured in current US dollars) for the five countries that produced the most manufacturing output last year: China, US, Japan, Germany, and Korea.  As I reported last year, China officially became the world’s largest manufacturer in 2011, with output in 2011 ($2.34 trillion) that was 20.6% higher than the $1.94 trillion (updated) of...

The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.6 percent in the third quarter, according to data released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That's a rise from the second quarter, when the real gross domestic product tallied a 2.5 percent gain. The pace of growth is the fastest since the first quarter of 2012, which clocked in at 3.7 percent. Thursday's release is the "second" estimate for the third quarter, following up on data released in November that put the GDP's increase at 2.8 percent. But the increase belies some potentially troubling signs. As The Associated Press...

The good news. Real GDP growth was revised for Q3 up to 3.6%. The bad news. Personal consumption expenditures fell to 1.4% for Q3. There has been a steady decline in personal consumption expenditures since 1998. The good news. Private investment in residential real estate rose 13.0% in Q3! And nonresidential structures grew at 13.8%. The bad news. Real median household income (only through 2012) continues to decline. We have a “GINI Paradox.” Since 2007, real median household income has fallen while income inequality (GINI) has risen. AND we have rising residential real estate investment? The US needs real GDP...

With more people in the world living in cities than ever before, cities’ share of global GDP is rising: 25 cities account for approximately 50% of the world’s GDP. But not all cities can be winners, and not all are destined for greatness. The following smorgasbord of charts highlight how successful cities have typically had natural advantages such as location, time zone and resources; but more importantly, to remain successful they need education, a skilled workforce, strong property rights, a broad base of industries and in some cases, policies aimed at attracting capital and talent. Conversely, As Goldman notes,...

Over at The Atlantic, Ron Fournier -- the editorial director of National Journal -- argues that the Republicans are "The Party of Zilch."  As part of his rationale for why the GOP "stands for nothing," Fournier states that "[t]he country needs to tame a massive debt that will be 100 percent of the gross domestic product by 2038 unless Congress raises revenue and trims entitlements. No, says the GOP." Here is a news flash for The Atlantic: the American gross federal debt already exceeds 100% of GDP.  No need to wait until 2038; it is currently at 106.5% of...