Is the U.S. Economy Still Accelerating?

That’s the big question: Is the rate of growth of the U.S. economy still increasing?

It may sound odd to many to say that the U.S. economy is not only growing but also it’s accelerating. But I assure you that’s what happened during much of 2011.

Bear in mind that the economy went from near-0% growth to very mediocre growth, but that still counts as acceleration. Check out the last four bars on this chart:

The government updated its Q4 GDP report this morning to show no change in its original number that the economy grew, in real terms, by 3.0% for the final three months of 2011.

But growth for this quarter may come in below that. The major bright spot is that jobless claims continue to decline. Today’s report showed that, once again, jobless claims fell to their lowest point since April 2008. The Labor Department said that claims fell by 5,000 to 359,000. Wall Street was expecting an better number of 350,000.

The fact that it was slightly below expectations may be the reason the market is down this morning. The S&P 500 is currently at 1,397 which is down about eight points from yesterday’s close.

Posted by on March 29th, 2012 at 9:56 am


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.