Well, new figures for US economic growth are out.\u00a0 And it turns out last quarter was not a good one.<\/p>\n
The US economy\u2019s annualized real growth rate for the first quarter of this year?\u00a0 Try a whopping 0.5%<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0 Yes, that\u2019s a ZERO to the left of the decimal point.\u00a0 And yes, that\u2019s the annualized<\/em> growth rate.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the slowest quarterly annualized real growth rate we\u2019ve seen for the US economy in 2 years.<\/p>\n The US economic real growth rate was so low last quarter, it was nearly 30% less than expected.\u00a0 And it was only expected, based on midpoint projections, to be 0.7% – which is itself abysmally bad.\u00a0 It also marked the third straight year with a p!ss-poor beginning, economic-growth wise.<\/p>\n This follows on the heels of a rather anemic fourth quarter of last year.\u00a0 During that quarter, in real terms the US economy grew at a \u201cmassive\u201d 1.4% annualized rate.<\/p>\n It seems a cinch to say that we won\u2019t see 3% real growth this year overall.\u00a0 So far, the current\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 gang of economic idiots screwing things up by-the-numbers in DC <\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Administration has yet to see a single year with US real economic growth at or above an annual rate of 3%<\/em>.\u00a0 That makes the Obama Administration the first US Presidential Administration in history to fail to deliver even a single year of 3% growth<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 In fact, if the economic growth rate for this year doesn\u2019t reach 2.67% (kinda doubtful at this point IMO), the Obama Administration will be the fourth-worst\u00a0 Administration in US history, economically speaking<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n If current projections hold, the 8 year average for US economic growth under this\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 gaggle of economically na\u00efve tools<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Administration will be around 1.55% – if they\u2019re lucky<\/em>.\u00a0 If the economy doesn\u2019t improve dramatically with respect to last quarter during the rest of this year, they won\u2019t even see that.<\/p>\n When the US economy doesn\u2019t grow, well, thinks kinda suck for everyone.\u00a0 For comparison, during the Reagan Administration, the 8 year AVERAGE for real economic growth was 3.5% per year.\u00a0 Gee – ya think maybe that had something to do with why it’s perceived as “good times”, economically speaking?<\/p>\n