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It's amazing how people bitch about an economy that's still growing.
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If you couldn't get a job, or a job that would pay enough to provide for your family, wouldn't you bitch? Just because we have had a limited recovery, does not mean it has been a strong one.
Moreover, the consumer is not the sole control of the US economy. Buying provides short term stimuli, but unless worker productivty increases, there can be no long term economic growth. what provides worker productivity? Education and investment. Education is hard to quantify in these situations-its a longer term effect, and while many people are choosing to study over work, there is still the question of if they will have marketable skills.
However, easily quantified and studied is, investment in business infrastructure, and only in the last quarter did any of those numbers recover to modest gains from sharp negative numbers all through early 01. Source :
http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/newsrel/gdpnewsrelease.htm
Government spending is sharply up to 8.5% of GDP, an highly unsustainable number, with current taxation. Private domestic investment is still weak, creating stress on the loanable funds market that may be felt soon with higher rates, especially if the Fed cannot sustain such low rates on the overnight prime rate.
It's a mixed bag, with several signs that it will not last.