The US economy is driven by the consumption monster that dines nearly exclusively on imported goods and various forms of centralized stimulus.
Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) As A %GDP and Personal Consumption Expenditures As A %GDP Average from 1947
Government Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment (GCEI) As A %GDP Average from 1947
Private domestic investment and exportable production side of the economy remains in shambles.
Gross Domestic Private Investment (GDPI) As A %GDP and Gross Domestic Private Investment (GDPI) As A %GDP Average from 1947
Net Exports (NETEX) As A %GDP and Net Exports (NETEX) As A %GDP Average from 1947
The debt ceiling debate, depending on your perspective, is bad or good short-term theater. Excessive debt within an unbalanced domestic and global economy, a structural concern, ensures the today's debt ceiling drama will be repeated in the future.
Headline: Economy slowed sharply in first half of year
The economy expanded at meager 1.3 percent annual rate in the spring after scarcely growing at all in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department said Friday.
The combined growth for the first six months of the year was the weakest since the recession ended two years ago. The government revised the January-March figures to show just 0.4 percent growth -- down sharply from its previous estimate of 1.9 percent.
High gas prices and scant income gains have forced Americans to pull back sharply on spending. Consumer spending only increased 0.1 percent in the April-June quarter, the smallest gain in two years. Government spending fell for the third straight quarter.
Stocks dropped in early trading, then regained some lhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifost ground. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 58 points, and broader indexes also declined.
"These numbers are extremely bad," said Nigel Gault, an economist at IHS Global Insight. "The momentum in the economy is clearly very weak."
Source: finance.yahoo.com
