Somewhat lost amid the political news, the Commerce Department released a grim report on GDP growth in the second quarter, which actually slowed to 1.7 percent from an already weak 2.0 percent in the first quarter.
It is, however, slightly better than the advance estimate of 1.5 percent, which was adjusted primarily because of “a downward revision to imports and upward revisions to personal consumption expenditures, to exports, and to state and local government spending that were partly offset by downward revisions to private inventory investment and to nonresidential fixed investment.”
Oh, goody, Gross Domestic Product didn’t crash quite as hard as anticipated, because the government spent more money.
The Heritage Foundation crunched the numbers and warned: “While the media will highlight the weak household spending numbers, the real focus of concern should be on business investment. When businesses hold back on improving and growing their productive capacity, that inaction directly affects hiring decisions and, thus, household incomes. And that’s what businesses appear to be doing this year: They are sitting this economy out.”
Is the weakest “recovery” in half a century due to regulatory battering, combined with fear of impending tax increases and tottering government debt? Only time, and a new President, will tell. But it’s hard to look at what we’ve got right now and conclude our children’s deficit-seized money has been well-spent over the past few years.
