“I actually compare our economic performance to how, historically, countries that have wrenching financial crises perform. By that measure, we probably managed this better than any large economy on Earth in modern history." -President Obama, New York Times Magazine, 4/28/16
Huh?
In case you missed it, yesterday's Q1 2016 GDP reading came in at 0.5%.
Yes, 0.5%. Meanwhile...
That's why President Obama's New York Times victory lap is a bit of a headscratcher considering first quarter growth was the worst it's been in two years. As we reminded subscribers yesterday, "We Called The U.S. Growth Slowdown (And Believe The Worst Is Yet To Come)." (Click here to read more about what we expect for growth in Q2 2016.)
To be clear, we've heard It all before.
Earlier this year, in his final State of the Union address, President Obama told the nation that anyone "claiming that America's economy is in decline is peddling fiction."
Meanwhile, U.S. growth has continued its downward descent, from 3% to 1.4% to 0.5%, so who's "peddling fiction" exactly? Now to be fair to President Obama, unaccountable Wall Street economists and unelected Fed bureaucrats completely missed U.S. #GrowthSlowing too.
So, no worries.
But we didn't.
We've taken President Obama to task for these kinds of statements before (see "7 Key Economic Talking Points For Serious Contenders at Tonight's #GOPDebate"). And considering yesterday's lackluster GDP report coupled with today's data on waning U.S. consumption and another declining PMI reading, we're sticking with the call that's been right for over a year now...
