Consumer Spending Weakest in 20 Months

Personal income up 0.3%, but inflation hits hard

(NEWSER) - Consumer spending rose at its fastest rate in four months in February—but that’s in large part due to rising gas prices. Consumer spending climbed 0.7%, while personal income rose 0.3% following January’s 1.2% jump, the AP notes. Both gains reflected a Social Security tax cut, which boosted take-home pay. But if energy prices keep climbing, household budgets will fall, and so will spending, economists say. More»

Consumer spending drives growth for third straight month

(AP) - The economy grew at a solid 3.2% pace during the first quarter of this year as consumers boosted their spending by the most in three years. It marked the third straight quarterly gain, providing more hope that a recovery is in progress. Still, growth came in a tad shy of the 3.4% forecast and was weaker than the fourth quarter of last year (5.6%). More»

But most remain upbeat about their future: Pew survey

(NEWSER) - The economy is doing a number on those aged 18 to 34, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center :

• Half say they have taken a job they didn't want.
• More than a third have gone back to school because of the job market.
• Nearly a quarter have taken unpaid work to gain experience.
• About a quarter have moved back in with the folks.
• More than 1 in 5 have postponed having a baby, and about the same number have put off getting married.

This kind of stalled job growth often leads to recession: David Leonhardt

(NEWSER) - Bleak reading for the White House ahead of the president's jobs speech : David Leonhardt of the New York Times thinks the odds of a double-dip recession have spiked of late and might be around 50-50 now. The US had been putt-putting along in what looked to be a modest recovery for about a year until this spring, when job growth stalled. Since then, we're averaging about 40,000 new jobs a month, he notes, and "the last time such a meager increase did not coincide with a recession came in the 1950s." More»

Nate Silver sees bad things in long-term GDP graph

(NEWSER) - Need a pick-me-up given today's depressing stock news ? Then be advised that Nate Silver's column in the New York Times is not for you. The stats guru plots GDP going back to 1877 and sees signs that our recent "economic crash was even worse than economists had previously believed ... and that the recovery has been even more timid." GDP is currently about $13.3 trillion "when it 'should' be $15.7 trillion based on the long-term trend," writes Silver. More»