The World Street Journal reports that U.S. economic growth accelerated last quarter, easing fears of a near-term slowdown but doing little to change the trajectory of a long but weak expansion.
Gross domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services produced across the economy, expanded at an inflation- and seasonally adjusted 2.9% annual rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday. That was stronger growth than the second quarter’s pace of 1.4%. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected growth at a 2.5% pace for the July-to-September period.
Last quarter’s growth rate was the fastest recorded in two years.
The third-quarter acceleration largely reflected increased exports and a buildup of inventories, while consumer spending increased at a slower rate.
Hey, Mitch McConnell went on the Senate floor and lied to the world that he and the Republicans are responsible for the economic growth. Yes, he was lying, but he is a Republican so lying is expected.
But if Mitch can lie about something he did not do, why can’t one of the people responsible for the economic recovery speak up and acknowledged that positive growth?
President Obama has been doing just that and now Nancy Pelosi is doing the same.
After the report today that the unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent, Pelosi issues this statement.
“Last month, our economy added another exclamation point to the longest uninterrupted period of private sector job creation in our history: 58 months, 11.2 million jobs. In 2014, we created nearly 3 million new jobs, more than in any year since 1999. For all our progress, however, too many Americans are still out of work and too many middle class families still feel squeezed. It is clear the 114th Congress must act to create jobs and expand the opportunities of working people and middle class families.
“On the first day of this Congress, Democrats put forward a legislative package to increase paychecks for working families and put Americans back to workbuilding the roads and bridges our country needs – paid for by keeping our tax dollars here at home. The CEO/Employee Pay Fairness Act will ensure that workers share in the fruit of their productivity, by denying CEOs the ability to claim tax deductions on income over $1 million unless they give their employees a well-deserved raise. With the Stop Corporate Expatriation and Invest in America’s Infrastructure Act, we will prevent U.S. corporations from renouncing their citizenship to dodge paying their fair share of taxes and use those dollars to create good-paying jobs here at home.
“Republicans, however, blocked the House from considering both bills – choosing instead to spend the opening days of the new Congress advancing more special interest priorities. The American people expect Congress to champion the paychecks of middle class families, not the profits of big banks and corporations shipping jobs overseas. Republicans should stop undermining the middle class, and come together with Democrats to create jobs, bigger paychecks and better infrastructure for every American family.”
There are multiple reasons why the jobless claims data fall. The best reason however, is confidence in the economy, which leads to economic growth, which leads to fewer jobless claims being filed.
The number of unemployed workers applying for jobless benefits tumbled in the most recent weekly data to the lowest level in more than eight years, signaling that employers are letting go of very few workers.
Applicants for regular state unemployment-insurance benefits in the week that ended July 19 dropped by 19,000 to 284,000 — the lowest level since February 2006, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected initial claims of 310,000 in the most recent weekly data.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury 10_YEAR +1.98% edged higher, indicating traders growing slightly more confident in the economy.
More good news for the economy. Reuters is reporting that retail sales rose solidly in February as Americans bought automobiles and other goods even as they paid more for gasoline, suggesting consumer spending this quarter will hold up despite higher taxes.
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday retail sales increased 1.1 percent, the largest rise since September, after a revised 0.2 percent gain in January.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected retail sales to rise 0.5 percent last month after a previously reported 0.1 percent gain in January.
So-called core sales, which strip out automobiles, gasoline and building materials and correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product, rose 0.4 percent after advancing 0.3 percent in January.
U.S. stock index futures erased earlier losses, while prices for Treasury debt fell. The dollar rose against the yen and extended gains versus the euro.
The retail sales data was the latest to suggest momentum in the economy as fiscal policy tightened, marked by the end of a 2 percent payroll tax cut and an increase in tax rates for wealthy Americans on January 1.
When John Boehner said, “if we lose 200,000 federal jobs, so be it,” we listened and thought the figures didn’t add up. A little research into the facts revealed the figure was more like 20,000 to 40,000 jobs lost if Boehner got his way.
Now, after economists studied the Republican budget and the effects of it’s cutting $61 billion dollars from it, the result – as reported by financial economists – would be a job loss of 700,000 by the end of 2012.
According to reports from The Washington Post;
Zandi, an architect of the 2009 stimulus package who has advised both political parties, predicts that the GOP package would reduce economic growth by 0.5 percentage points this year, and by 0.2 percentage points in 2012, resulting in 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of next year.
His report comes on the heels of a similar analysis last week by the investment bank Goldman Sachs, which predicted that the Republican spending cuts would cause even greater damage to the economy, slowing growth by as much as 2 percentage points in the second and third quarters of this year.
Of course, Republicans stand by their claims that cutting $61 billion will create jobs and put America back on its financially feet. And of course, they’re the only ones believing this claim.
Maybe more appropriate for Boehner would be to claim, “Losing 700,000 jobs because of our budget and 200,000 federal jobs? Whatever! I must keep a campaign promise, so be it!”
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