Thursday, April 28, 2011

Q1 GDP report: Economic growth slows

Q1 GDP report: Economic growth slows - Apr. 28, 2011:
"NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Economic growth slowed to a crawl in the first three months of the year as a spike in gasoline, higher overall inflation and continued weakness in the housing market all took a toll on the recovery.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic health, rose at an annual rate of 1.8%, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. That's a significant slowdown from the 3.1% growth rate in the final quarter of 2010.
[...]
``Undoubtedly, consumers are cutting discretionary spending to compensate for rising food and energy prices,`` said Jim Baird, chief investment strategist for Plante Moran Financial Advisors. ``The risk of recession in the near-term remains slim, but an extended period of slow growth isn't likely to encourage an enthusiastic mood any time soon.``"

What an astute observation from Jim who has such an important sounding title. Obviously, food is more important than a new pair of shoes. I doesn't take a Moran'ic genius to spell it out for us common folks.

Ironically, the article also mentions that Government spending is down which is contributing to the drop in GDP. Trimming the Federal deficit is well and good, but the idea is trim and reduce WASTE first. Not reduce spending that boosts domestic industry and creates (or in this day and age, maintains) jobs in the US.

Wastage as in all the time and money to look at Obama's birth certificate. No matter that it is, and has always been, public record - and was always available to anyone (ergo the term, public record) to see, and most of the press already had already seen it. Yet all it takes is one rich and noisy twit with a weird hairdo to make it into a national debate. If Uncle Sam wants to raise some quick cash, come up with a "publicity hound tax", and Trump'et-ing buffoons can have all the press air-time they want.