
Economy Improves Just Enough For the Federal Reserve to Kill It
The problem facing Democrats as they roll into the 2016 election cycle is that the economy has improved just enough for the Federal Reserve to kill it with an interest-rate hike.

The problem facing Democrats as they roll into the 2016 election cycle is that the economy has improved just enough for the Federal Reserve to kill it with an interest-rate hike.

In fact, one of the worst things about politicized economics is the false promise that politicians know what the ideal economy looks like, never mind having solid plans for getting there. Is the ideal economy one in which everyone’s basic needs are covered? Welcome to the endless grey fog of the collectivist welfare or communist state, which always proves unsustainable and fails to deliver on those promises anyway.

Secretary of State John Kerry warned Tuesday that the U.S. Dollar may “cease” to be the world’s reserve currency should Congress vote to re-apply sanctions to the dictatorial Islamic regime in Tehran.

California’s record four-year drought will have little impact on the state’s overall economy, according to credit rating agency Moody’s.
Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said that despite the contraction in GDP, “things are actually pretty good” on Friday’s “Opening Bell With Maria Bartiromo” on the Fox Business Network. Pritzker said, “You know, actually, I think things are actually pretty good.

On Friday, the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis released its revised economic report for the first quarter of 2015 – and in a “surprising” and “unexpected” twist (surprising and unexpected only because Barack Obama is president and the media are constantly surprised that the Sun God cannot rain gold from the heavens), the GDP dropped -0.7%.

On Tuesday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed onto a pact between 12 regions in seven countries, including four U.S. states, binding each to reduce greenhouse gas emissions drastically. The goal of the cuts is to keep the rise in global average surface temperatures below 2º Celsius. However, recent revisions by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change suggest global temperatures are projected to rise by less than 1º C over 30 years–and perhaps by less than 0.5º C.

U.S. economic growth stalled out in the first quarter of 2015 as the domestic energy boom caused a short-term collapse in capital spending, large lay-offs in the oil industry, and a 15 percent jump in the exchange rate of the US dollar. A pattern of slowing GDP just before a consumer spending boom takes off is consistent with what happened the last time a big rise in U.S. crude oil production tanked gasoline prices beginning in 1986.

We’ve been hearing this ridiculous garbage about cold winters freezing the engines of the mighty Obama growth engine every year for the past six years. The hard, cold truth is that we’ve never had sustained growth under this President’s policies that could do anything more than slow the bleeding in the American workforce. Everything he does, from ObamaCare to his amnesty orders for illegal aliens, is a job-killer. It’s a tribute to the underlying strength of the American economy that we’re not in even worse shape.

In 2014, GDP growth bounced back in the spring and summer from a tough winter, but in the fourth quarter, it fell off to 2.6 percent. History indicates the country should be doing a lot better—simply, too many prime working-age Americans are despondent and have permanently dropped out of the workforce.

The news that U.S. GDP expanded at 5% is welcome indeed—and confirms the bullish outlook that many of us at Breitbart News have shared for the past several years. At the same time, the economy remains tough in many respects.

On Tuesday, the Commerce Department released revised GDP figures that showed third quarter growth at 5%, the strongest third-quarter growth in eleven years.