Friday, June 01, 2012

COP: Economy, and Obama, 'Weaker Than First Thought' in 2012: Q1 GDP down to 1.9%

Joel B. Pollak 

When modest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 2.2% for the first quarter of 2012 was announced in late April, the mainstream media did its best to spin the result in a positive direction, the better to help President Barack Obama kick off his campaign and his message that his policies are working. Now, the Associated Press reports, GDP growth for the first quarter has been revised downward to 1.9%--"weaker than first thought."

Weaker than first thought--by whom? When the first number was announced, NPR (to take one example) did its best to highlight reports that 2.2% growth meant "signs of strengthening in the underlying dynamics of the economy." NPR's coverage of the revised number is matter-of-fact (so far), but Reuters is still spinning:
While the small inventory buildup held back growth in the January-March quarter, restocking of shelves, retreating gasoline prices and an improving housing market should provide a boost to output in the second quarter.
Growth in the second quarter is currently estimated at a pace of about 2.5 percent.

If only!


Meanwhile, the first employment reports for May will be released tomorrow morning--and will be closely watched by investors and spin doctors alike.

  • cptnjarhead
    Just another dismal statistic for BO and his administration.
    BO = failure

  • Elizabeth H. Crane
    Obama is going to be  able to fix this country, better than it has ever been. http://WorkInFaceBook.notlong....

  • cptnjarhead
    based on what? his knowledge of the private sector and job creation?
    BO has ZERO knowledge of business and has surrounded himself with like minded people. BO and his administration have the least business experience in 60 years.
    BO might be a great guy, outstanding husband and loving father, but he is a horrible potus. Its not personal, its business.

  • Just the facts!
    Please embrace reality at some point.  BO is in way over his head and really has no clue on how to help with the economy.  As Chris Matthew's should be saying " The thrill is gone, no longer up my leg!" The Potus has failed, to improve, the jobless rate and the deficit.  On the job training can no longer occur.  He needs to be voted out this November.  Along with much of the current congress!

  • conservIN
    Good lord for your own good dont be so naive

  • tmer2
    Keep drinking the koolaid Liz

  • Patsy Cooper
     Why has he not started fixing it if he can?????

  • SDSurfer
    Then what has he been waiting for?

  • enough
    First - for two years he had full control - didn't do anything but health care which as you can see is going no where.
    Second - really don't think you need to come to this site to try and drag people into your paramind internet scams. 

  • Felix Cuvreau
     spam

  • sbenard
    For those of us in the finance industry, GDP of 1.9% is borderline recessionary. And the mathematical formula for GDP unfortunately measures spending, not real or sustainable GROWTH, so if the US Federal deficits were extracted from the formula, GDP would be barely growing at all.
    We're now creating about $2.50 of debt to create $1 of GDP. Our debt is growing at 8% per year, and our economy is growing at 1.9%. That is a recipe for disaster, not prosperity!
    Failure indeed! But I would use the word "destruction" instead!

  • cptnjarhead
    agreed. BO's Keynesian style recovery has inherent flaws and is doomed for disaster. Romney is our only hope and i believe he can put the US back on the right path. I just hope he has the balls to do what is necessary.

  • Napawineguy
    With the current math, we need to maintain at leas 2.25 per cent gdp growth just to prevent more job loss.

  • StanH
    Things are swell, Barry says, in a third world kind of way.

  • Toby
    As the economy crumbles and the price of oil dips as a result, watch this be brought up by the Obama Campaign as a positive sign for Americans and the economy. "Look! Gas is cheaper! See we know we're doing!"
    Sadly, many will believe it. 
    I welcome the lower oil prices, but the way it will be lowered is an ominous sign.

  • sb36695
    But Obama said rising gas prices meant recovery?!  Funny thing is I don't listen to Obama anymore.  Unfortunately, he is exactly what I expected.

  • Taxpayer1234, Teaching college kids to think since 1984.
    Rising gas prices = recovery ONLY if the profit margin rises.  It hasn't.  And even then, it would be a fleetingly temporary condition until competition kicks in. 

  • sb36695
    I used to think Obama was intentionally destroying the economy, but maybe he is just an amateur.

  • Taxpayer1234, Teaching college kids to think since 1984.
    He's intentionally consolidating power in the hands of the government, but he has no clue what that will do to the economy in the long run.

  • sb36695
    Well you can't have a middle class in a dictatorship, so they must be destroyed. It also looks like he is using our military and money to enpower the muslim brotherhood. Maybe he is an evil genuis.

  • Sanmon
    Going just like this administration planned. It is Bush's fault and only 4 1/2 more years of Obama is going to be  able to fix this country, better than it has ever been.
    /Barf

  • SigFan, For God, Family and Country - in that order.
    Economic growth unexpectedly lower, unemployment growth unexpectedly, higher.  Revise the bogus statistics again and lay down the smokescreen - Obama must not be tarnished or allowed to fail.  Every quarter Obama plays these shell games with the numbers, and yet the lamestream media continue to sing his praises.  Unless the people start to get the truth from their government, the media and everyone else things are never going to change.

  • leepermax
    YUP ,
    LIARS CAN FIGURE
    BUT FIGURES DON'T LIE

  • GJPinks
    Everyone, take note, that mean GDP was 13% lower that reported NOT .3 percent. Own The Narative

  • funfact
    Better is that first estimate was 18% higher than actual. When it is fudged down the normal 30% the 0bama regime generally uses GDP will be at 1.7%.

  • mikeinidaho
    isn't it amazing that good news is always "revised downward" and bad news is always "revised upwards". And the so-called experts always review each statistic as "unexpected".
    Lying liars and their lying lies are always exposed in the end!

  • nolotrippen
    Unfortunately, most people don't read the new media like you and me.

  • sb36695
    My business has not recovered from the recession.  When they speak of a double dip, I assume that means depression.  If Obama is reelected, I am closing.

  • Boomers165
    You may have no choice. My business had to "realign" to stay afloat and keep our 40 employees, but we now have more regulations, run less efficiently, customer satisfaction is down. You name it, we are there, and not growing. We are treading water. Don't believe ANY "positive" spin!

  • funfact
    Final revised GDP will be 1.7% which with government overspending is a shrinking private sector. Just like 0bama wanted. 

  • angrywithfeds
    And only if Main Stream Media would do their appointed jobs,  ALL would be aware of just how INCOMPETENT the LIAR-IN-CHIEF really is, too.  There would be a NO CONTEST sign up.  But due to the blatant ignorance of the general population, Barry's propaganda STILL works.
    Joe Wilson NAILED this arse to the wall when he said aloud, "YOU LIE"!
    That is the ONLY thing Barry (Bari, Barack) is accomplished at...LYING.
    Couple that with his mission of destroying America, well, we know what he is all about now.....
    NOBAMA NOW
    HOLDER SHOULD BE IN JAIL

  • MikenPA
    Holder Lied People Died.

  • leepermax
    REST ASSURED WE WILL SEE ALL THOSE POSITIVE OBAMA POLL NUMBERS END UP WEAKER THAN FIRST THOUGHT......JUST LIKE HIS WONDERFUL ECONOMIC NUMBERS......GO FIGURE !

  • RightyTighty
    They have consistantly released initial numbers that show slight improvement but then quietly update them downward weeks later. They have been doing this with unemployment numbers for months. When you control the government you can make them spew out whatever you want with obamas fuzzy math.

  • hadenoughyet
    It's George Bush's fault!  It's George Bush's fault! Waaaah!

  • enough
    Sorry - Obama couldn't get any weaker than I thought he was from the third time I heard him speak. 
    First time it was just that he was running - second time in passing heard him say something and thought "he didn't just say that"!  Third time I stop to listen and freaked.  He has pretty much been everything I expected and worse. 

  • haditwgov
    I intend on contacting my Senators and Congressmen tonight. I shall be on their radar after today. I shall advise them I intend to be an unstoppable voice against their treasonous behavior past present and future. I shall become their nightmare as they attempt to continue their destruction of America. No more, I am mad as he'll and I am not going to allow anymore. For context I live in MA. Enough said.

  • Ishmael
    Obama had two full years with a supermajority in both houses, where he was able to do whatever he pleased. He spent $5 trillion, suppressed the private sector, redistributed wealth , and created our present train wreck of an economy. Socialism is not compatible with affluence, freedom, or human dignity.

  • Taxpayer1234, Teaching college kids to think since 1984.
    More "surprising" results of Der Gooberfuhrer's command economy.

  • PeoplesRepublicOfMd
    This business of first reporting a higher figure for anything  -  be it the GDP, unemployment figures or whatever - followed shortly thereafter by a "revision" has been a habit of this pathetic administration.  The only purpose of handling these matters, as I see it, is to give a bump or a rosier picture than should be, to that loser, Obama. 

    Take notice and watch the next time any initial statistic or figure comes out of the WH.  Frankly, were I a reporter at the WH, I'd sit in the audience and laugh out loud in Carney's face before he even starts his lying routine.   

  • Ishmael
    Despite perennial DOL and media lies, mainstream Americans are living these times and know that we are not in a recovery, that there is something very un-American and wrong about the Obama regime. Send them packing in November. They are traitors to America as founded. You don't set about fundamentally changing something that you love.

  • DavidNWinterGarden
    Pants on fire. Memo to Axlerod: BOSTON: Axlerod prevented from addressing rally. Romney supporters shouted him down with "Five More Months" Axlerod yelled back (Tom Cruize-Jack Nicolson) YOU can't handle the TRUTH" Network news crews FAILED to report Axlerod going Bananas.

  • tmo
    Yes, but then the Q2 numbers will be up by "lots and lots" at 2.5% so the dems will use their cool Obama math and show a "huge" percentage increase.  1.9% to 2.5% becomes a 32% increase - watch for it.  (2.2% to 2.5% would only be a 14% increase).  AND the Q2 numbers will be the ones they use going into the election. We will be way into Q3 before the 2.5% is proven wrong if they ever revise it before the election.

  • quiensabe
    Want to know how it is Thursday folks,
    The unemployment numbers have been revised up 17 weeks in a row. They had been revised up 62 out of the last 63 weeks.   Everytime for the past 92 weeks the jobs numbers are always updated to  show more people filing for unemployment  the following week, with very little attention

  • Sheik Yerbouti, Who you jivin' with that cosmik debris?
    Unprecedented! (as our miserable excuse for a president likes to say).
    You know how to tell that these numbers are unquestionably being manipulated to help Obama?
    They never...never, ever, have to be revised upwards. The chances a miscalculation could accrue to one bias so many times, without ever tilting the other way, have to be in the range of millions-to-one.

  • BarackMugabe
    Say, where are all the leftists in this thread?
    Where are Odummy's defenders?

  • vegasdomar
    No end to this administration spending our money and being "transparent" LOL!
    TRANSPARENT ADMINISTRATION.....Drugmakers Vowed to Campaign for Health Law, Memos Show.  Drugmakers led by Pfizer (PFE) (PFE) Inc. agreed to run a “very significant public campaign” bankrolling political support for the 2010 health-care law, including TV ads, while the Obama administration promised to block provisions opposed by drugmakers, documents released by Republicans show. The internal memos and e-mails for the first time unveil the industry's plan to finance positive TV ads and supportive groups, along with providing $80 billion in discounts and taxes that were included in the law. The administration has previously denied the existence of a deal involving political support.   “After promising transparency, the White House turned around and cut a secret deal with pharmaceutical companies,” Pitts said today in a statement. “Today’s revelation about the $80 billion deal shows an administration that cared more about victory than reform.” THOUGHT THE PHARMA. COs WERE IN THE POCKETS OF THE REPUBLICANS?  EVEN WORSE WITH THE OBAMA DONATING BANKS....
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