Economy slows sharply in second quarter as imports surge

[brentspeak]

Since Obama refuses, under the advice of Summers and Geithner, to even try to enact any 'change' whatsoever to the nation's suicidal trade policy, this was completely expected. It's the trade deficit, dummy. You have to block cheap Chinese imports and renegotiate NAFTA. If Obama and the corporate Democratic leadership is too thick to see that the vast amount of the nation would instantly flock over to the Democrats with the revamping of the Wall Street/Wal-Mart-friendly trade policy, then there really is no hope for the Democratic party.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65M2WK20100730

Imports slow second-quarter growth

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON | Fri Jul 30, 2010 10:35am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economic growth slowed in the second quarter as a capital investment drive by businesses sucked in imports at the fastest pace since the first quarter of 1984.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.4 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said in its first estimate on Friday, after an upwardly revised 3.7 percent growth pace in the January-March quarter.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast GDP, which measures total goods and services output within U.S. borders, growing at a 2.5 percent rate in the second quarter. The government had previously estimated a 2.7 percent growth rate for the first three months of this year.

"The anticipated slowdown in the economy is happening. Will business investment fall off a cliff next quarter if domestic consumer spending continues to flag?" said Lee Olver, managing director of financial strategies at Madison Williams & Co. in Houston.

[Oregone]

1. "renegotiate NAFTA" == a forgotten campaign promise

[golfguru]

2. But look at the millions of jobs "saved"!

Did'nt you watch the "View" yesterday? Get with it!
This is one tough economy! Read more at..

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Recession-was-deeper-than-apf-3247751846.html?x=0&.v=3

[Bitwit1234]

3. WHEN in the hell are we going to stop importing from other

countries that won't import our stuff. This is congress' fault pure and simple. They could have done something about it by now.

[NJmaverick]

4. The economy is still growing, which is the bigger issue

after being in the republican great recession, that alone is still more than welcome news.

[brentspeak]

5. Your posts are unintentionally hilarious

“The economy is muddling through,” Ethan Harris, head of North America economics at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch Global Research in New York, said in an interview. “We’re probably not going to see a really strong number for a while. We need to see some pickup in job growth.”

snip

The worst U.S. recession since the 1930s was even deeper than previously estimated, reflecting bigger slumps in consumer spending and housing, according to the Commerce Department’s annual revisions also issued today.

No economy "grows" at 2.4% GDP with government-sweetened unemployment figures of 9.5%.

[NJmaverick]

6. Grow= getting bigger

Stay the same= not growing or shrinking

Shrinking= getting smaller


Those seem like pretty straight forward terms that one really can't effectively dispute

[Cali_Democrat]

7. "No economy "grows" at 2.4% GDP with government-sweetened unemployment figures of 9.5%"

That's complete bullshit.

There's no prerequisite that says the economy must have a certain employment rate to grow at a certain GDP rate.

Utter hogwash.

GDP isn't necessarily dependent on the employment rate.

[JoePhilly]

8. Hummm ... I wonder what the GDP trends for the last few years look like ...

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gdp-slows-in-second-quarter-to-24-rate-2010-07-30