Courtesy of Larry Doyle.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis this morning released the 2nd quarter GDP report and it registered a surprisingly robust reading of 1.7%.
Not that a growth rate of 1.7% is anything to write home about but it was better than the forecasted growth rate of 1% or thereabouts.
The cynic in me tells me that I guess we are supposed to disregard the downward revision to the prior quarter’s growth from a reading of 1.8% to 1.1%. That fact only further confirms that our economy continues to largely walk in place with what I have long defined to be a case of “walking pneumonia.’
The average growth for the first two quarters of 1.45% is not going to get it done in terms of generating meaningful job growth and an increase in incomes. This is not news and with Washington going on vacation for the next 5 weeks, we should not expect any meaningful developments from our fearless leaders to address our current reality.
No surprise there either.
Quick fixes, governmental band-aids, central bank smoke and mirrors, and financial chicanery are not the stuff that makes for long term economic growth.
If you do not think so, let’s play a game of “closest to the pin” and highlight the average GDP over the last ten years. Rather than my merely posting it, who cares to venture a guess as to what the average annual GDP has been in our country for the period of 2002-2012?
It’s not good.
Larry Doyle
Please order a copy of my book, In Bed with Wall Street: The Conspiracy Crippling Our Global Economy that will be published by Palgrave Macmillan on January 7, 2014.
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I have no business interest with any entity referenced in this commentary. The opinions expressed are my own. I am a proponent of real transparency within our markets so that investor confidence and investor protection can be achieved.
