Economy Growth Is Best in a Year

[MiniMe]

Please tell me this is a joke article. I guess not, but I can hope that people aren't this deluded.

http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2007/07/27/725099.html

Economy Growth Is Best in a Year
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer
46 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The economy snapped out of a lethargic spell and grew at a 3.4 percent pace in the second quarter, the strongest showing in more than a year. A revival in business spending was a main force behind the energized performance.

The new reading on gross domestic product, released by the Commerce Department on Friday, marked a big improvement from the first three months of this year, when economic growth skidded to a near halt at just a 0.6 percent pace, the slowest in more than four years.

Stronger spending by businesses and government powered the rebound in the April-to-June quarter. Individuals, however, tightened their belts as they coped with high gasoline prices and the ill effects of the housing slump. The sour housing market continued to weigh on national economic activity in the spring but not nearly as much as it had in previous quarters.

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However, consumers, whose spending largely prevented the economy from stalling out in the first three months of this year, lost energy in the second quarter. They boosted spending at a pace of just 1.3 percent, the smallest since the final quarter of 2005.

High gas prices _ past $3 a gallon _ and ill effects of the housing slump are beginning to take their toll on peoples' appetite to spend. Still, a solid jobs climate _ the nation's unemployment rate is at a relatively low 4.5 percent _ should help cushion some of these negative forces.