The economy is holding up well in an age of austerity. “Housing prices rose faster over the past year than they have in the past seven, according to data out Tuesday. Consumer confidence hit its highest level in five years. The stock market rallied another 0.6 percent as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500, leaving…
Tag: growth
CHART: How State And Local Budget Cuts Are Holding Back GDP Growth | ThinkProgress
As the Tax Policy Center noted, “in 2011, the state and local sector contracted 3.4 percent, the largest decline since World War II.” Budget cuts have actually knocked several tenths of a percentage point off of national GDP in each of the last two years and in the first half of 2012, as this chart…
The debate we should be having over ‘you didn’t build that’
Let’s try to extract the smart conversation from the contretemps over President Obama’s comments on the debt entrepreneurs owe to society. There are two questions worth thinking about here: 1) What do entrepreneurs owe the society that created the conditions necessary for their success? 2) What level of public investment is consistent with the maximum…
The price of a do-nothing Congress
The latest employment data indicate that the U.S. job market is in a holding pattern — the price we pay for a do-nothing Congress focused more on austerity than job creation. Our economy added 69,000 new jobs in May, for an average of 96,000 over the past three months, with a downward revision of 49,000…
CHART OF THE DAY: US Vs. UK Growth
Now the first thing to note is that the US has recovered WAY better than either the Eurozone or the UK. So if you think Obama has been a disaster, you might first acknowledge that the US has performed better than all its major Western peers. But beyond that, check out the UK line. The…
By 2025, three of the world’s richest cities will be in China
The McKinsey Global Institute explains what the new world order will look like in 2025: Just 600 cities will be responsible for about 60 percent of global GDP growth. And while urban centers in the United States, Europe*, and Japan are still dominant, cities in China and India, in particular, will have an outsized role…
Economic Snapshot for March 2012
The nation’s economy and labor market are gradually gaining strength. Job creation is up and the unemployment rate keeps falling. But American families need more months of much-stronger job creation to eliminate the massive economic pain that the crisis and its aftermath brought. Substantial trouble spots remain in the economy and in households’ economic security….
By the Numbers: 3.2 Million
In 2011, American businesses created the most jobs in any year since 2005. In fact, the private sector has added nearly 3.2 million jobs in the last 22 months. These numbers are proof that we are steadily climbing out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. But we can’t stop now. We must…
VIDEO: Debunking The Right-Wing Meme That The Obama Administration Is Anti-Business
From GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney and Tea Party Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) to Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, a general consensus has emerged that the Obama administration is “anti-business.” Yet any actual evidence of an effect from this putative bias has failed to materialize. ThinkProgress has compiled a video report. Watch it: via VIDEO:…
GDP Grew At 2.5 Percent In The Third Quarter
According to the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. economy grew by 2.5 percent in the third quarter, an improvement over last quarter’s 1.3 percent growth. This quarter’s growth is right in line with analysts’ expectations. via GDP Grew At 2.5 Percent In The Third Quarter | ThinkProgress.