US economy slows DRAMATICALLY, more reasons to distract

[Bluebear]

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy slowed dramatically in the spring to an annual growth rate of 3 percent, as consumers, worried about higher gasoline prices, cut back their spending to the weakest pace in three years, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

The April-June advance in the gross domestic product, the country's output of goods and services, was below the 3.8 percent increase many economists had expected and was significantly down from a revised 4.5 percent growth rate in the first three months of the year.

The administration, counting on a rebounding economy to bolster President Bush's re-election prospects, insisted the second-quarter slowdown was only temporary and forecast that growth would rebound in the second half of the year.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040801/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy_70

[Myrina]

1. This is why Big Business will get behind Kerry

The only industry to make boatloads of profits under Shrub were the defense contractors and energy industries.

The rest of the corporate capitalists who backed him so heavily in 2000 have seen that what he's done to the economy is causing people to shop LESS and be more discerning in their expenditures. That, combined with job-loss numbers, will tighten the economic cycle and lead to further lower profits unless something is done to reassure consumers and get the cash flowing again.

That something, IMO, is a new president.

[Bluebear]

2. Kind of negates Shrub's "we're turning the corner" speech.

Now what, chimpy?

[Deja Q]

5. Chimpy will push for MORE tax cuts, using the same BS reasons.

They didn't help 3 years in a row. Only an insane idiot would expect something different to happen. x(

[cosmicdot]

7. not a Hoover speech ... OMG

next he'll be promising us a Genetically Modified Chicken in Every Pot

[Deja Q]

3. * openly supports corporate foreign outsourcing and blames US workers...

If you ask me, taking away millions of $30+/hr jobs with only x amount of those jobs being replaced with $7/hr jobs doesn't equate to helping the GDP. It rather HURTS it.

* is going down and the public will eventually get angry at corporate america too. Pity they chose to be un-Christian and greedy...

[cosmicdot]

4. people best not wait until next winter to find out how bad it is now

(if they can't figure it out for themselves) ... come January '05, we could be stuck with more than just a worsening economy ... if ya get my drift ...

[Bluebear]

8. Wait until heating oil prices hit home!

Every summer in the northeast you can lock in prices for winter oil and experience a discount. This year the companies aren't letting you buy in advance because of unstable prices.

[whistle]

11. Correct oil futures closed at record highs on Friday at $43.80pbl...

...and will be even higher after this international council meets next week to discuss the true levels of oil reserves around the world. The U.S. needs to be proactive and begin by a levy of $55.00 a barrel tax on all oil pumped. This will force industry and consumers to conserve and find cheaper alternatives for energy. The tax collected can be used by federal government to fund emergency research to find those alternatives as quickly as possible. We know that big oil companies are not the least bit concerned with finding alternatives and never have been. In the meantime everyone shares in the sacrifice and begins conserving these energy resources.

[Walt Starr]

6. I think we know the REAL reason for the Terra Lert now

The economy is slowing dramatically. Make a terra lert on the finance industry and blame the economic calamity on terra.

[whistle]

9. Look, the Bush administration has lied about virtually everything....

...including Iraq, Al Qeada, terrorist, the economy, the reasons for the tax cuts, the list goes on and on. Bush can not be trusted, nothing he says can be believed and the idea of a republican congress following in lock-step without questioning anything this administration does or requests, has to be suspect. Vote Kerry/Edwards on Nov 2 and show BushCo the door. In fact, Bush and his entire administration need to be investigated virtually across the board for everything they have done or neglected to do since taking office in January 2001, and if justice is really to be served, even acts commitment during the Bush 2000 campaign.

The U.S economy is in big trouble and it will take years to get it back to the condition that it was in when turned over in Bush Jr. There were trillions of dollars in projected surpluses then, now there are trillions in deficits and national debt as far as the the best planners can see into the future. Bush and the republicans have squandered the public trust and I for one feel that the type of republican that has squirmed their way into the national political arena, needs to be exposed for what they are and run out on a rail!

[xcmt]

10. Definitely not defending Bush, but...

A 3% annual growth rate isn't only the historic average, it's also the goal of the Federal Reserve to attain. Periods of rapid growth are always followed by a kind of economic correction downward. The Bush recession was caused by the end of the ridiculous growth of the Clinton era. It's also why you read every week about Alan Greenspan getting ready to raise interest rates.

Growth is bring politicized by people without much knowledge of real Economic theory. 3% is good. Slow and steady.

[sandnsea]

13. Like the 80's

Shitty is the best we can do. That's what they said then too. Keep the people in fear of losing their jobs so they'll accept less and less wages and benefits while the CEO's and stockholders make more and more money. BULLSHIT. We can do better than this. If you prefer stuck in the mud over the 90's economy, then you're either financially secure or, well, stupid.

[Bluebear]

16. "Shitty is the best we can do" lol

[Yavin4]

14. Economic Growth of 3% Is Indeed Good Unless The Economy...

is not coming out of a recession. We need much, much stronger growth to pull us into a positive growth phase then we'd need 3.0% growth to stabilize us. We haven't had a prolonged period of stong growth to bring us up to speed.

[whistle]

15. How was the economic growth under Clinton ridiculous?

...What was ridiculous about it? There is nothing magical about the 3% figure referred to, in fact it is a secular trend average. For decades the economy has grown according to the needs, circumstances and patterns of society that have nothing to do with Federal Reserve notions of managing monetary expansion and contractions. Slow and steady is neither a goal nor a guideline, it is merely a philosophy of conservative aversion to change.

During the past 24 months the federal reserve was quite willing to allow the economy to expand but artificially keeping Federal reserve interest rates at the un-heard of low of 1%, while the military fiscal spending policies of the Bush administration caused the economy to grow at inflationary levels of 7% to 8% levels, doing absolutely nothing about it except to lure lots of new families with marginally limited household incomes buying new homes into Adjustable Rate Mortgages (Greenspan himself has encouraged this policy for months)and even small business loans. Now these people are at highest risk of being hit by the rising interest rates and perhaps being forced out of their homes. So much for the republican version of slow and steady. It's Bushit!

[sandnsea]

12. Excuse for bad economy

Now he can blame it on terrorism.