Remember last month when we learned the economy shrunk slightly in the last three months of 2012? Well, the good news is, those figures have now been revised, and as it turns out, the economy actually grew in the fourth quarter. The bad news is, the figures were revised up only slightly, and meets literally the bare minimum standards for economic growth.
The U.S. economy grew in the fourth quarter -- but just barely -- instead of contracting for the first time in three and a half years, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The U.S. expanded at a 0.1% annual rate in the last three months of 2012, better than the initially reported 0.1% drop but well below the third quarter's 3.1% pace.
Why was economic growth so anemic in late 2012? Because of government spending cuts. Indeed, 0.1% growth would have been 1.5% growth were it not for lower government spending.
The political salience of this should be obvious -- Republicans will respond to discouraging economic news by insisting that conditions will improve through fewer public investments and more public-sector layoffs, which is exactly what's due to happen starting tomorrow thanks to sequestration.
But every shred of economic evidence tells us GOP policymakers have this backwards. The government is, in reality, hurting the economic recovery, not through too much investment, but through not enough. The sequester will make this worse, on purpose. Congressional Republicans are looking at anemic economic growth, see an austerity bomb set to detonate, and refuse to compromise with the popular Democratic majority.
For those hoping to see a more robust economic recovery, watching the nation's elected lawmakers act against our economic interests is, to put it mildly, frustrating.
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"I see Obama is cookin' the books again" - so sayeth the RWNJs
It is a fervor based upon the slender thread to sanity found in the swaggering credo supported by a reductio ad absurdum . This sort of faith based understanding of material events only follows the conservation of energy in its most unadorned sense . The absence of the ordinary customs is as much a declaration of something stupid , which breeches the social will to meet any of the viral arguments in perfectly predictable ways .
The IRA , Mossada , M15 , The PLO ,The CIA , all viral actors for decades without an enunciated state sanctioned purview , never the less infecting at will for a desired brinkmanship . This being supported by profiteers representing their hostility to accommodation , or the idea of getting a rich man by other than his wealth is just another "dangerous" outbreak of folk songs .
I remember among many , Paul Szep cartoons , of the different agencies drinking after work with their arms around each other celebrating the intransigence which kept them in business , and people , now called sheeple or libs , anyone who doesn't back the right wing party line , dying for the bottom line . A line which draws the majority out of a surviving circle , economically or incendiary .
Good times for the warlike fear mongering profiteers are dangerous times for Dr Zhivago and his stupid poetry . Mungo smallest idiot in bunch ...
Dang, I must have given you the wrong meds this morning, hope I gave Blankster yours, too.
Oh !
To be young and vain again .
Until I see evidence otherwise, I am assuming that the Republican strategy is to keep any stronger recovery hobbled until they can take advantage of it in the midterms. Remember how last year the Midwest lost out on an entire season of road repair because they delayed the highway bill?
I am a pessimist. I am assuming that the strategy is to keep doing this as long as there's an another election on the horizon. I hope I outlive the GOTP, but I fear they'll outlive the USofA instead.
I think you have to look at where we were when P. Clinton left office. Times were good for everyone but after eight years of P. Bush (which I think was a crooked election), we are skating on thin ice. If you get the money circulating,times are good but if you give the money to the people at the top, the money goes into stocks or to the ilands. You increase the taxes on the rich as much as you want but with the loop holes they have the can get a tax refund check. Romney's accountants said he owed 13% int taxes to the last eight or so years but they did not say what he paid, he could have gotten a refund. The Republicans are the cause of bad times and they are still hold the country back. I did not hear one sound out of these people during the Bush years (which should have been the Gore years), they are hypocrites. Then you have the tea party which I think was started by racists roots and I think they will fall apart when P. Obama is out of office.
Not many comments here to this OP.
Everything that everybody in DC says about economics and US budget policy is backwards. MMT and MMR are "new"* economic theories that deduce from their facts and assumptions that, now that we are off the Gold Standard, default is impossible and the only worry about huge deficits is inflation. Also, interest rates are SET by the Fed. Res. Bank, so no need to worry about them rising either.
But, it is hard for a paradigm shifting idea to get traction at 1st when everybody is stuck in the mind set of the old paradigm. You all do know that at one time contintnts could not move, but the sea floor could rise and fall to provide "land bridges"; BUT now everyone knows that contintnts do move. Before you blow this off you should at least look at what they have to say. Here is a link--
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/p/modern-monetary-theory-primer.html
* There is an older version of it with a different name.
What I would like to know is why everyone is giving a pass to the GOP when interviewed. It is a known fact that this administration is the only one to CUT Jobs during a recession instead of add them and that the GOP has slowed the recovery by it. The fact show this is a problem why do MSNBC let the GOP off the hook at press conferences and interviews we need to hit them on this.
The GOP’s unabashed Allegiance to the "Interests" of their "Special Interests" proprietors is MOST disturbing. To say nothing of their predisposition for lying! All at the expense of this Country’s best interests!
The only things that are certain about the GOP,(Grand Obstructionist Party), Republican Party is that they singularly excel in Interrupting the Democratic Process at the expense of the best interests of this Country because they Despise Obama to a point bordering on insanity. It is not Obama’s Policies or his Direction - of which they have none, but just for his being Obama. It would reasonably follow that they must also Despise those who voted Obama into Office. Ergo, they must eliminate the current Democratic Election Process and Institute one that Serves their "Special Interest" Proprietors alone. It appears that in their WAR on LEGITIMATE ELECTIONS they would have no qualms about taking this Country down along with Obama if necessary. Such intentions as eliminating the Popular Vote to protect their "Special Interest" proprietors, would portend some very dangerous times for the survival of our Democracy! Would their idea for Reducing the size of Government be to Reduce it to a point of impotency in order to allow for less competition with respect to Restrictions, Safety Rules and Regulations, Inspections and Enforcement of Infractions, being imposed on their "Special Interest" Proprietors? Something is just not right with these folks! All of their actions beg the question: Are the actions of some of us constrained by our "Will to Live"? While the actions of others are NOT so constrained due to a "Will to Power" having supplanted the "Will to Live"? Those possessed of the "Will to Power" as their driving force, are self-destructive and take risks beyond any point of reason. Consequently, they present a constant danger to themselves and those around them!