[Reaganite Republican]

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Any who’d like to be added to the RR ping-list, pls FReepmail me at ‘Reaganite Republican’ -TIA

[txrefugee]

Even Mark Zandi, The Most- In-The-Tank-for-Obama Economist on CNBC, had a deer-in-the-headlights-look when that eye-popping report came out this morning. Talk about finding something unpleasant in the bullish punch CNBC was serving!

Rick Santelli was in fine form. His suspicions that the BLS reports were mostly BS before the election appear vindicated.

[alloysteel]

Obamabot voters will NEVER admit their guy is the cause of all this dismal performance and financial woe, because that would be, well, racist.

Shullbit. No matter how thin you slice it, baloney is still baloney. This is not a “double-dip” recession, it is just short of a full-blown DEPRESSION. The reason it is not much worse than it already has become, is due in large part to the ready availability of a comparatively cheap energy source, natural gas. The economy is still limping along not because of the efforts of Bronco Bama, but in spite of them.

There is little chance of removing the artificial barriers raised against economic expansion until the Current Regime is out of the White Hut. Either by election, or by resignation, in the manner of Richard Nixon, our last Imperial President.

But first we have to get Joe Biden out of his entrenched position.

Herself, the Cold and Joyless, is at loose ends at the moment.

Frying pan? Fire? Which shall it be?

[Buckeye McFrog]

Yeah, but the other guy was going to ship my job to China and give me cancer.

[Tublecane]

People are naive, but since when did they vote based on economic measurements? FDR was re-elected three times despite us staging in the depression. Our heads are still so far up his butt that the history books pretend he saved us.

There is an indirect connection between bad data and bad feelings inside voters. But it isn’t like the MSM was gonna report bad data as bad data, unless Obama impossibly jumped parties, or something.

[Tublecane]

I remember pellet urging caution. It’s one thing to criticize their methodology—such the way they changed what counts as unemployment or what they omit from the inflation basket—and another thing entirely to accuse then of outright lying. Which us what it would’ve required: actual pants in fire.

I’ve never been uncomfortable calling the government lying liars who lie. These are the people who told us the Gulf of Tonkin incident was unprovoked and in international waters.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

The worst part is that people will think that the answer to the crashing economy is expanding benefits again — more food stamps, more Social Security disability awards, another extension of unemployment. We are in a death spiral where American voters think the answer to the stagnant economy is more benefits, which in turn result in a stagnant economy. No one thinks they have to support themselves anymore.

[ctpsb]

Not to worry the Obama defenders are on the scene. Over at Huffington Post on this story’s comments Obama is not even close to being at fault.

Some villains there are the Tea Party stranglehold on Congress, corporate giveaways, Republicans’ refusal to raise taxes more, not following Krugman’s advice enough, if it wasn’t for Obama it’d be worse, etc, etc, etc.

[Cboldt]

The takers don't care about the state of the economy, or the prospects of obtaining a job and earning an honest living. It is all about the benefits handed out by the government, for those voters, and those voters are numerous (and catered to) by the DEM party.

In this brave new country, the state of the (private) economy is irrelevant - up to the point that the private economy doesn't support the transfer payments. But, the government has an alternative to a productive economy, and that is the power to create money out of thin air. It can use that money to maintain the "transfer" payments.

[Cyber Liberty]

Almost 2/3 of Q4 were after the infamous reelection of The Won. GDP was finally moving along at a half-way decent rate (>3% growth in Q3), but hopes for a better 2013 were crushed that bitter day in November.

Businesses are “going Galt” now. This is a consequence of Obama and his policies. Let Q2 show another drop and it’ll be official: “Obama’s double-dip recession.”

[Teacher317]

Doesn't matter. The Dow is about to hit 14,000 again. The left will crow about the "new record highs", and the MSM will give them complete support. The economy will be "fixed" as far as the low-info crowd is concerned later this week or early next week, with the new "record".

(On OCT 9, 2007, the Dow closed at 14,164. Today it is just under 14,000. While it will be a new "record" when that 14,164 number is exceeded, what it REALLY indicates is that once Pelosi and Reid took over and had a year to start their destructive ways, it took the market 5.5 years to recover and simply get back to where they were at that time. We've basically had ZERO progress in the past 5.5 years, thanks to the Dems... but of course, this is NOT how the MSM will report it.)

[nascarnation]

Now that the US has tipped into socialism, I don’t really think that stats like this would have changed the election outcome.
We had nearly 8% unemployment, nearly $4 gasoline, and surging food prices and the Baraqqis still won.

[NRA1995]

To quote the Commie info-b*tch on CNN: “This was totally unexpected”

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

The surprise contraction could raise fears about the economy's ability to handle tax increases that took effect in January...

Naaaaaah... Nothing to fear at all. Happy days are here again!

[Wyatt's Torch]

Not sure what everyone is bitching about... the decline in GDP was driven by a sharp decline in government spending. Isn't that what everyone wants?

Here's the analysis from Wells Fargo that came out moments ago:

Real Final Sales Up on Consumer and Residential Investment

Obviously, defense spending overstated third quarter GDP and depressed fourth quarter GDP. Therefore, we reemphasize the point that real private final sales to domestic purchasers provide a good benchmark for the underlying strength of the economy and remove some of the volatility due to inventory swings and government spending. Real private domestic final sales illustrate two characteristics of the U.S. economy today that are often lost in the hype of GDP. First, note the relative stability of sales over the past few years. There is a sense that underlying domestic demand has been remarkably stable overall while relative strength has shifted between sectors. Second, note how the pace of sales in the current expansion has clearly downshifted from prior expansions. This reinforces a theme we have often presented that growth in the current expansion has indeed settled into a slower growth pattern compared to the past and the expectations (hopes) of some analysts.

The Pluses: Consumer Spending and Housing—Yes, Housing

Personal consumption and residential investment carried the water in the fourth quarter. Personal consumption was up 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter and up 1.9 percent during all of 2012. Real disposable income grew 1.5 percent in 2012 and we expect it to return to that growth rate in the second half of 2013 after the hit from higher payroll and income taxes in the first half of this year. Residential investment registered double-digit gains in the second half of 2012 and we expect that momentum to remain in 2013. We anticipate that housing starts will pick up to a one million-unit pace by the fourth quarter of this year compared to a 900,000-unit pace in the fourth quarter of 2012. Earlier this week, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index was up 5.5 percent year over year for November—a very good sign.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

I remember being surprised at the 3.1% growth in the Third Quarter until it was shown that so much of that growth was from Federal Government Spending... That was another Obama “spend it now to show we’re not sinking” tactic that the low information voter just accepted. Now we see the reverse in the 4th quarter.

And, of course, Cramer blames it on “Congress” and the fiscal cliff mess with not a mention of who resides in that great big white house in DC.

[catfish1957]

I think the punk POTUS has and will do enough damage at every level to doom us as a second or third tier nation for good. Rome had a good run too after about 400 years. Looks like ours will be about 125.

[Vaduz]

2013 the new 1929 send thank you cards to Obama&Co.

[justiceseeker93]

Naive Voters Re-Elected Obama...

Yes, the economy really was in decline at the time of the last election, but did voters really re-elect Obama or was the outcome of the election determined by fraud and cheating in the electoral process, targeted cunningly to densely populated Dem controlled areas in the swing states?

Numbers in this election simply didn't add up and deviated from heretofore reliable pre-election polling data by larger degrees than we've seen in the past. An unprecedented lack of integrity in the voting and vote counting processes offer the most reasonable mathematical explanation for these discrepancies, rather than a massive change in the demographics of the electorate. (The latter, of course, has been the MSM mantra since the day after the election.)