The economy grew at its fastest pace in more than six years in the fourth quarter, surprising economists, as businesses curbed their aggressive cut in stocks and stepped up spending.
The robust growth pointed to a sustainable recovery in a crucial period before government stimulus plans run out and was good news for an administration amid political difficulties.
Gross domestic product expanded at a 5.7 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday in its first estimate for the quarter. It was a strong end to a year in which the economy shrank by 2.4 percent -- the worst performance since 1946.
While much of the growth resulted from companies' drawing down inventories more slowly than they did earlier in the year rather than from a surge in domestic demand, economists said it was still a positive report.
Great news for the country....bad news for the party of No.
I can't wait to see all the right-wingers trying to explain how this has to do with the policies of GWB and that Obama gets zero credit for helping our economy recover.
Let the games begin!
Wow, took all of 26 minutes for this to become a lame partisan blame-fest. Must be a new record.
hopefully this is a sign that things are on the rebound...Great news for the country....bad news for the party of No.
I can't wait to see all the right-wingers trying to explain how this has to do with the policies of GWB and that Obama gets zero credit for helping our economy recover.
Let the games begin!
anyone who is honest, doesnt expect to 'recover' everything overnight...this will take some time.4th quarter's fast economic pace likely to wane - Yahoo! Finance
fourth sentence of AP's overtly pessimistic piece on this topic: "but analysts warn it's unsustainable"
what?
why?
"consumer spending remains weak"
in a nutshell, too much of the 5.7 came from businesses restocking inventory, spending not likely soon to be duplicated unless consumers start consuming again
AP's depression derives from it's premise that "to drive down the jobless rate by just 1% this year, the economy will have to grow by 5% for the whole year"
"no one thinks that will happen"
"for all the last year, workers' compensation rose by the smallest amount on records going back more than a quarter century"
ie, employees poorly paid can't spend
"roughly 2/3 of the quarter's growth came from increased manufacturing as businesses drew down their stockpiles of goods [inventories] at a slower rate"
"but companies will eventually let those inventories fall again unless consumers spend more"
"unlike past rebounds driven by the spending of ordinary shoppers, this one appears to hinge on spending by businesses, foreigners and---until it runs out---govt
"history suggests this isn't the recipe for a strong economy"
AP is painting the picture of a double dip
friday's morning msnbc was dominated by this same take on the 5.7---inventory and consumer spending
don't dance too loud, there's still a lot of pain out there, and lots more to come
do you agree that a full recovery will take time? or do you expect obama to snap his fingers, and have everything fall into place?tell it to ap and msnbc
they're honest
So who's policies does this have to do with?
So who's policies does this have to do with?
This recovery is due to businesss restocking their depleted inventory, this will only be a short bump. Most business now have moved to basically a three day inventory, opposed to perhaps a 2 week inventory as was done before. The hiring of census workers to the tune of 1 million will also give a bump to the employment roles, but only for one working season.Economy soars 5.7 percent, fastest in 6 years - Yahoo! News
I wonder whether this can be in any way attributed to Obama's stimulus or not. Regardless of how much credit one can attribute to the CinC I am sure we will see people looking for something wrong with economic growth.
The economy may have grown, but unemployment is still rising.
We would be in the midst of the second Great Depression if Bush and Obama hadn't fostered the Stimulus bills.
The majority of Republicans who later opposed stimulus efforts only did so in order to get as much political mileage out of the deficits as they could.
If the policies they pretend to endorse had actually been implemented, it would have been exactly like the policies that made the first Depression so much worse.
It's a ridiculous assertion with absolutely no proof or basis anyways.
do you agree that a full recovery will take time? or do you expect obama to snap his fingers, and have everything fall into place?
thank you for asking, but no one cares what i think, i don't even care what i think
america DEMANDS that president obama fix this catastrophe NOW
or else he needs to go away
that's just the way it is, if he can't handle it he shouldn't have run
What a ridiculous misuse of the claims of the economists who were advising Obama. This is about the report where they made their predictions and recommendations regarding the stimulus:Not according to Obama.
TIME Magazine said:The two economists did say in the report that they expect the bulk of the jobs created by the stimulus to happen in 2010 and 2011.
Its not a ridiculous assertion, and it does have a basis, but you are right that there is no way to prove it. How DO we prove what WOULD have happened, after all??It's a ridiculous assertion with absolutely no proof or basis anyways.
a simple answer and very true.thank you for asking, but no one cares what i think, i don't even care what i think
america DEMANDS that president obama fix this catastrophe NOW
or else he needs to go away
that's just the way it is, if he can't handle it he shouldn't have run
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