>>Headline: An updated study indicates tax-cut checks did little to boost spending. (Source: Online WSJ 2/27/02)
Garbage in, garbage out. Apparently that study was wrong considering the 4th quarter results.
Of course, the difference is that the 4th quarter GDP results are fact, not conjecture.
02/28/2002 - Updated 12:13 PM ET
GDP grows much faster than expected
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy, propelled by the biggest surge in consumer spending on big-ticket goods in 15 years, grew at an annual rate of 1.4% in the final quarter of 2001, the government reported Thursday.
The bigger-than-expected increase in the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the economy's health, could mean that economists will date the end of the recession around the end of last year or the beginning of this year....
Consumers, whose spending accounts for two-thirds of all economic activity in the United States, ratcheted up spending on costly manufactured goods, such as cars, at a rate of 39.2% in the fourth quarter. That was the biggest increase since the third quarter of 1986.
Total spending by consumers rose at a brisk 6% rate in the fourth quarter, the largest gain since the second quarter of 1998. The government had previously estimated consumer spending rose at a 5.4% rate in the final three months of 2001...
usatoday.com
And even if that study wasn't proved wrong by actuality, no thinking person would mantain that running a surplus (or increasing taxes like the Socialist Dems want to do) would do anything but hurt the economy.
In contrast, lower tax rates have proved to have a great stimulus effect. |
