The economy is worse than you think

[DrLeftover]

From the Wall Street Journal.

The policies of the Obama administration have led to the weak condition of the American economy. Growth during the coming year will be subpar at best, leaving high or rising levels of unemployment and underemployment.



The drop in GDP growth to just 1.8% in the first quarter of 2011, from 3.1% in the final quarter of last year, understates the extent of the decline. Two-thirds of that 1.8% went into business inventories rather than sales to consumers or other final buyers. This means that final sales growth was at an annual rate of just 0.6% and the actual quarterly increase was just 0.15%—dangerously close to no rise at all. A sustained expansion cannot be built on inventory investment. It takes final sales to induce businesses to hire and to invest.



The picture is even gloomier if we look in more detail. Estimates of monthly GDP indicate that the only growth in the first quarter of 2011 was from February to March. After a temporary rise in March, the economy began sliding again in April, with declines in real wages, in durable-goods orders and manufacturing production, in existing home sales, and in real per-capita disposable incomes. It is not surprising that the index of leading indicators fell in April, only the second decline since it began to rise in the spring of 2009.



The data for May are beginning to arrive and are even worse than April's. ....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576363984173620692.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

 

[DrLeftover]

And more

Ohio restaurant referenced by Obama is closing



Associated Press - June 9, 2011 6:15 AM ET



TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio restaurant mentioned last week by President Barack Obama as an indirect beneficiary of the government's Chrysler bailout will go out of business Sunday after a more than 70-year history.



Co-owner Richard Lawrence of New Chet's Restaurant in Toledo says business has fallen victim to the economy and the workplace smoking ban approved by Ohio voters in 2006. He told The Blade newspaper of Toledo on Wednesday that auto industry cutbacks also hurt.



Lawrence says he used to deliver up to $300 in food per week to Chrysler Group LLC's Jeep plant in Toledo, but now that's down to about $100 worth.



Obama visited the plant on Friday and told workers that without them, who would eat at Chet's or patronize other local businesses?



Information from: The Blade, http://www.toledoblade.com/