I expect to hear shortly the refrain among financial analysts and talking heads to explain the recent spate of relatively weak U.S. economic news: It’s the weather!
Last year about this time, you remember, we were told that the unexpected 2.9% annualized drop in first quarter 2014 GDP was an aberration and all due to the harsh winter weather. And the economy did indeed rebound sharply after that, with full year 2014 GDP growth coming in at 2.5%. Hardly spectacular growth, but a lot better than the horrible first quarter would have indicated and certainly a lot better than other places outside China and India.
So maybe there was something to that weather thing, although I think it took way too much of the blame. Continue reading "Blame it on the weather"
