Get Your Blog Up

“This administration is populated by people who’ve spent their careers bashing government. They’re not just small-government conservatives—they’re Grover Norquist, strangle-it-in-the-bathtub conservatives. It’s a cognitive disconnect for them to be able to do something well in an arena that they have so derided and reviled all these years.”

Senator Hillary Clinton

Friday, June 25, 2004

Economy not as strong as we thought

While still solid, economic growth was slower than expected last quarter:
The downward revision to economic growth reflected a drag from the swollen trade deficit and more modest spending by consumers, the lifeblood of the economy.

The 3.9 percent growth rate marked the slowest pace since the second quarter of 2003.

(snip)

The yawning trade deficit, meanwhile, shaved 0.7l percentage point off the first-quarter GDP - twice as much as previously estimated.

Expectations were for the growth rate to hold steady at 4.4 percent growth. Hopefully this is not a sign that people are earning less compared to costs , which would further slow the growth, or so I've been led to believe. Also I've still read nothing from the current administration about curtailing the "yawning trade deficit" that had such an impact.