How did the economy grow 3.8% last quarter?

[AX10]

http://channels.netscape.com/pf/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001/20051028/1418340703.htm&sc=1333

I don't believe it and/or all the money is going to top. If that is the case then, the rich are getting filthy rich x 1,000,000 and the poor are getting poorer and poorer!

[joemurphy]

1. That's the trouble --- This administration has lied about so

many things that we can't know what's true anymore and what isn't.

Are these figures like the ones on global warming that the Bush people futzed with?

[napi21]

2. Oil Company Profits.

The report didn't say that the poor got richer, it said the economy grew. There's a big difference.

Oil co profits were the highest ever!

[bluestateguy]

3. They cooked the books, that's how

The Bush people have experience with this. Back when Baby Bush was governor of Texas there were several school districts that were caught faking their test scores to juice up the state average.

[applegrove]

4. Well - inflation was kept down by wages being lowered and people

losing jobs in mid-sized corporations and opening their own small businesses. Inflation from Oil - is fought this way. Plus there was another tax cut a year ago.

So as long as Bush can keep putting assets $$$ into the stock market - the economy will continue to grow. As long as the emerging giants & their growing middle classes in India, China, etc, as long as they keep going for American dollars to hold some of their assets... as long as gold is sold (and I do not know how much of Fort Knox has been emptied).. as long as they keep "fluffing" up the market - the market will keep roaring. But only so long as inflation is not a problem. Only so long as other people in other countries willingly hold the US dollar as the "world dollar" and ignore balance of payments and debt - when they decide to hold US dollars.

Growth will continue. And, the debt, which is where the money given in tax cuts & in Iraq, as it grows...the middle class and poor will have to pay that off as time goes on.

So - if you had a fire sail, and your neighbours kept lending you money, so you could go out and buy more stuff and then have more fire sales, your front lawn would be very busy too! Except it is not the people in your neighbourhood who are buy the stuff at the firesale - it is the rich people only who are allowed in. The regular people in your neighbourhood would be busy moving lawns and working to survive, all the while you keep having a firesale. And when the debt gets called in by the neighbours who are lending you money, the regular people in your neighbourhood will have to pay that off. Or they will loose their houses.

[DakotaDemocrat]

5. REASON...

It didn't grow by 3.8%...

The main report noted that it was a 3.8 annualized rate. That is, if it grew at the same rate for the next three quarters of the fiscal year, GDP would increase by 3.8%. It really was only 3.8% divided by four.

3.8 is a bigger number. Nobody wants to hear that GDP grew at a .95% pace this quarter. They often use annualized rates for comparision sake.

[butterfly77]

6. They have been lying and cooking the books every since they walked ..

into the white house.

[papau]

7. I posted a summary of an analysis by CEPR at the link below

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=114&topic_id=17921&mesg_id=17921

[AX10]

8. Thanks and Kick!

:kick:

:hi:

[ktlyon]

10. in other words we borrowed a bunch of money to keep it spinning

both personal and government
We now owe over $25,000 for every man, woman and child citizen of our country

[ktlyon]

9. The 3.8% was a projection for a year

In other words it grew at 3.8 divided by 4 or .95% last quarter but still that is up.

This but one measure of our economy and must be put in context with other numbers

edited for typos

[unblock]

11. there are enough parts of the economy doing quite well

to more than compensate for the parts that aren't.

unfortunately, there are comparatively fewer people employed in the parts doing well. it's highly concentrated in a few sectors, such as energy, defence, and pharmaceuticals.

for the rest of us, this economy ain't so hot.

that's the trouble with boiling down an entire economy to a single number. in this case, it doesn't reflect the distribution of the growth.