Earlier this week it was revealed that something remarkable and totally unexpected happened during the fourth quarter of 2012. The economy didn’t grow. It shrank.
“Real gross domestic product – the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States – decreased at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012,” reported the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Wednesday.
What’s going on? Isn’t the economy supposed to be in full recovery mode by now?
The Federal Reserve, in a FOMC statement on Wednesday, said “that growth in economic activity paused in recent months, in large part because of weather-related disruptions and other transitory factors.”
Of course, blaming poor performance on the weather doesn’t work in most professions. Still, for the central bank to the United States government, excuses are the norm. Plus a flailing economy supports their program of creating $85 billion a month, from nothing but a ledger notation, to buy mortgages and treasuries. Continue reading







