Yesterday morning, the U.S. government released its initial report on the economy in the second quarter of 2015; and as measured by Gross Domestic Product (total consumer and government spending+business inventories+the net of imports and exports). But, also with this reporting, the Bureau of Economic Analysis -- the group that develops the GDP numbers -- will apply the new formulation for how the GDP is calculated and will apply those changes back to 2012. Many economists predicted that recalculations would smooth out the erratic swings and actually result in higher GDP growth. Boy, were they wrong.
Prior to the revised calculations, 2012 through 2014 had dismal growth rates that averaged only 2.4%. Now, with the new revisions; the average growth for those years is just 2.1%; which puts it at almost half of the average 3.97% growth rate following all previous recoveries from recessions since 1960. It also puts growth below the previously calculated average of 2.24% since the recovery started in the third quarter of 2009. Worse than that, the growth rate for the first six months sits at just 1.45% -- when averaged against just 6-tenths of a percent in the first quarter and 2.3% in the second. This is a slowing of 31% from Obama's previous 3-year average of 2.1%.
Simply, each successive year under President Obama's watch is getting weaker. Not a good trend, and it reflects on how government imposition in the economy, such as ObamaCare, is affecting economic growth.
References:
US government revises earlier GDPs to fix anomalies in reporting: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/30/us-government-revises-earlier-gdps-to-fix-anomalies-in-reporting.html
Our dismal GDP numbers: Under Obama US stuck in slow growth rut: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/04/29/our-dismal-gdp-numbers-under-obama-us-stuck-in-slow-growth-rut.html
Here are the revisions made to GDP growth over the last three years: http://www.businessinsider.com/q2-2015-gdp-revisions-2015-7
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