bjbjVwVw JEFFREY BROWN: An important snapshot of the country's economic growth was released
today, a week-and-a-half before the election.
With positive, but still slow, improvement, the White House and the Romney campaign offered
different assessments.
A late boost in consumer spending was a major factor in the economic news from the Commerce
Department.
Gross domestic product, the broadest gauge of the country's economic health, grew at
a 2 percent rate from July through September, slightly better than the 1.8 percent economists
had predicted, and an improvement over the 1.3 percent growth in the previous quarter.
Another positive sign today, a survey from the University of Michigan shows consumer
confidence this month reached its highest level since September 2007, three months before
the recession began.
But the GDP growth is still considered by economists to be too weak to bring a quick
uptick in jobs.
And on the stump in Ames, Iowa, today, Mitt Romney seized on that aspect of the new report.
MITT ROMNEY (R): Today, we received -- by the way -- the latest round of discouraging
economic news.
Last quarter, our economy grew at just 2 percent.
After the stimulus was passed, the White House promised that the economy would now be growing
at 4.3 percent, over twice as fast.
Slow economic growth means slow job growth and declining take-home pay.
That's what four years of President Obama's policies have produced.
Americans are ready for change, for growth, for jobs, for more take-home pay, and we're
going to bring it to them.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) JEFFREY BROWN: After two days of intense campaigning, President
Obama was off the trail today.
He didn't directly address the new data in a radio interview, but pushed back on Romney's
criticism.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The fact of the matter is that Gov. Romney's economic policies are
reverting back to the same policies that I inherited, that led us to the slowest job
growth in 50 years, record deficits, and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
What Gov. Romney's offering is a return to policies that have failed us in the past.
He's now talking about them as big changes.
They're not big changes.
They're a repeat, a relapse of things that haven't worked for American families for over
a decade now.
JEFFREY BROWN: With both sides promising to revitalize the economy, there's one more important
report yet to come.
The jobs numbers for October will be released next Friday, just four days before voters
head to the polls.
Earlier today, I talked about the new government economic report with Hugh Johnson, head of
an investment and advisory firm in Albany, N.Y.
Hugh, welcome.
First, the good news.
Where is the growth coming from?
HUGH JOHNSON, Hugh Johnson Advisors: Well, you know, there are a lot of places.
But I think probably the best news is that, you know, consumer spending is about 70 percent
of our economy.
We saw that strengthen in the third quarter.
That's very good news.
I think there are a couple of really parts of that -- first of all, residential real
estate or housing, we know the numbers have been getting better when we look at housing
starts or existing home sales.
That showed up in the report as well.
Residential real estate is improving.
And that's, of course, helping consumer confidence and helping consumer spending.
So I think those are the two bright spots.
The big surprise in this report in my view was the increase in government spending.
That wasn't at the state level.
That was at the federal level.
And that was primarily due to an increase in defense spending.
I think that that was the biggest surprise and a pleasant surprise.
JEFFREY BROWN: But, on the other hand, this is still very slow growth, right?
HUGH JOHNSON: Yes, that's true, when you compare it to the -- sort of the kind of growth rates
you should see for the economy at this stage of a recovery.
It should be closer to 3 percent.
We're at 2 percent.
JEFFREY BROWN: It looks as though a new area of weakness was in exports.
What's going on there?
HUGH JOHNSON: Yes, there was clearly a slowdown, a negative number on exports.
That is primarily due to the fact that we're doing less business with China.
The economy of China has slowed.
The economy of Europe has slowed.
And that showed up in the numbers.
JEFFREY BROWN: Hugh, I'm not going to make you into a political analyst, but from where
you sit, does it look like there's something here for both candidates?
HUGH JOHNSON: Yes, I think there is something there for both sides.
I think on the one side, now President Obama can certainly point to the fact that the economy
did better in the third quarter than it did in the second quarter and that we're sort
of on the right trajectory or on the right pathway towards recovery.
Things are getting a little bit better.
At the same time, there's no question that Gov. Romney could say, well, look, we might
be headed in the right direction, but the truth is, is that economic growth is extraordinarily
anemic when compared to other postwar recoveries, and not the kind of -- not the kind of numbers
or economic growth that we need to really, really make progress or to put a dent in the
high unemployment rate and get some people back to work.
JEFFREY BROWN: Hugh Johnson, thanks a lot.
HUGH JOHNSON: You're welcome.
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place JEFFREY BROWN: An important snapshot of the country's economic growth was released
today, a week-and-a-half before the election Normal Microsoft Office Word JEFFREY BROWN:
An important snapshot of the country's economic growth was released today, a week-and-a-half
before the election Title Microsoft Office Word Document MSWordDoc Word.Document.8