Imports drag second-quarter growth lower

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Economic growth was revised down to a sluggish 1.6 percent annual rate in the second quarter, dampened by the largest increase in imports in 26 years, the government said on Friday.

Gross domestic product growth previously was estimated at 2.4 percent and analysts had feared it would be pushed down even more sharply, but business investment was robust enough to partially cushion the blow from imports.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast GDP, which measures total goods and services output within U.S. borders, would be revised to a 1.4 percent growth rate. The economy grew at a 3.7 percent pace in the first three months of the year.

"The instant reaction is that it isn't good but we thought it might be worse, so there might be a bit of relief," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67N3B320100827

[bhikkhu]

1. In a sane world, 1.6% growth is too much, and stability would be the goal

...seeing how poorly the planet is faring under the weight of our current footprint, it is still beyond me why the media calls anything below an insane growth rate "weak" or "sluggish".

The only reason the economy must grow is to allow for population growth, which is the one massive global problem economists are criminally negligent in neglecting. So we will grow mindlessly like yeast in a petri dish, high and mighty until the edge is reached.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. In a recovering economy, you must grow before you try for stability...

We are not running an economy that meets the needs of the population before growth

Look if this was a Petri dish, we could just spray in a bit of bleach and solve the problem. We are talking human beings not bacteria.

[bhikkhu]

3. ...all the more reason to change gears, live with what we have

and stop racing for the edge.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. And how do we enforce living with what we have?

What do we do with the millions in excess population?

[bhikkhu]

5. there is no enforcing anything

no one is in charge, in case it hasn't been noticed, and there is no government with a sufficient budget to forcibly order its populace, now or in the future, even if it were desired.

It is best and healthiest, for mind and body, for an individual to live within what would be a sustainable budget of consumption. And it is good form for any individual to live as an example, in a way that would not lead to disaster if the majority were to follow.

[pampango]

6. It would be nice if there were a story that the inequality in US incomes had decreased by 1.6%.

That would do more for the average American, even if GDP remained stagnant, than a 1.6% increase in GDP does given the gross inequity in our income distribution.

If the media followed every .1% change in income equality as they do now for the GDP, we would be in a much better place.