Nation Avoids Recession
Dust Bowl from the Great Depression
The Swamp:
The “economic slowdown,” as President Bush calls it, has not turned negative yet. The nation’s Gross Domestic Product grew by a meager 0.6 percent during the first quarter of the year, the Commerce Department reports this morning.
That equaled the sluggish growth of the final quarter of 2007, which means that, rather than two consecutive quarters of retraction in the economy - spelled “recession” - the nation has racked up two quarters of lackluster growth.
Economists still are predicting an actual slowdown during the second quarter, April through June. Signs of that can be seen within the last quarter’s measure of the value of all goods and services produced within the United States: Builders cut spending on housing projects during the first quarter by 26.7 percent.
American consumers, whose spending drives the economy, also grew more cautious during the first quarter, with spending up 2 percent - the slowest rate since the second quarter of 2001, during the last official recession. Nearly one-quarter million jobs were lost during the first quarter, with the unemployment rate rising to 5.1 percent.
“The average person doesn’t really care what we call it,” the president said yesterday in the Rose Garden, asked why he is reluctant to mouth the word, recession. “The average person wants to know (why) they are paying higher gas prices and paying more to stay in their homes…. These are tough times… The economists can argue over the terminology… The American people know it.”
The Bush administration is counting on its $168 billion economic-stimulus package — with tax rebates that started depositing into bank accounts on Monday — to help spur spending during the second quarter. And the Federal Reserve today is expected to cut another key interest rate to 2 percent.
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Can you imagine what the global warming crowd would be saying if we had a major disaster like the dust bowl years sweep through this nation again?
April 30th, 2008 at 7:40 amGood to hear not technically a recession. Now if Pres. Bush can get his monetary policy people to do their work in the international monetary markets/central banks and stop cutting interest rates…yesterday, I put $50 worth of gas at $4/gallon in my tank (regular). It filled it halfway. Then, I did a couple of errands within 10 miles of my house. Used $20 worth. Ouch!
April 30th, 2008 at 9:02 am