I've got to read some books about free trade and make a dent in my paper, but I thought I'd post this to anyone interested.

 

Some key points:

 

Consumption up 511% from last quarter

Private investment down 58% from last quarter

Exports nearly doubled (!)

 

I'll be happy to argue some economic data and how the 5% growth rate is consumption fueled, which isn't good at all, but I'm off to get lost in economic papers.

Wow, the "Personal Savings rate", the rate of money being put into savings by people, was -.2% in the 4th quarter of 05, meaning that people were spending more than they were saving.

 

Last quarter it was -.5%. In other Words, Americans spent $50 billion more in the first quarter than they saved, through some combination of credit and eating into old savings.

 

Those are not good numbers to run. The GDP number is good, but wages aren't growing at all with the growth, and they're even being outpaced by inflation, to the point that Americans are following the advice of their government and financing expansion on credit cards.

 

This is not a situation that I think we can sustain for long, not with all the buildup of credit already financing this expansion. There either has to start being some real wage growth, or the consumer is just going to have to back off. Especially with that bankruptcy bill thrown in there.

Edited April 29, 200619 yr by Balta1701