military spending Archives

GDP Behaving Badly

By Econ70 | 01/31/2013

Despite GDP contracting at an annual rate of 0.1% in Q4 2012, the worst quarter since the end of the recession in 6/09, another recession isn’t in the cards. That’s because the data also showed relatively strong spending by consumers and businesses. Military spending posted its sharpest quarterly drop in 40 years, 22.2% (a one-time…

Feeble GDP

By Econ70 | 11/01/2012

The economy grew at a rate of just 2% in Q3. The drought subtracted 0.4% from growth, slumping exports clipped 0.2%, and falling business investment took 0.1% off GDP. By contrast, increased consumer spending added 1.4% to growth and increased defense spending boosted GDP by 0.6%. Growth in Q4 will be weaker due to the…