At least the economy didn't contract.
This is not good news: the economy expands at 0.4 percent. Is that even reproducible? When is a recession not a recession? A recession is defined as two successive quarters of contraction. The previous quarter: 0.1 percent. This quarter, 0.4 percent. [And if folks recall, the previous quarter's figure was actually "negative"; only with revision did it get to 0.1 percent.]
Okay. So how will the mainstream media spin this story? I suppose they might say the economy grew four times faster than the last reading (of 0.1 percent). So let's check:
The U.S. economy grew at a slightly faster but still anemic rate at the end of last year. However, there is hope that growth accelerated in early 2013 despite higher taxes and cuts in government spending.
The economy grew at an annual rate of 0.4 percent in the October-December quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That was slightly better than the previous estimate of 0.1 percent growth. The revision reflected stronger business investment and export sales.
Analysts think the economy is growing at a rate of around 2.5 percent in the current January-March quarter, which ends this week.
Incredible. The AP was able to get "faster" into the very first sentence, as in "the economy grew faster." Wow. I guess even the AP knew that saying the economy picked up steam, growing four times faster than the previous quarter would have been a headline too far.
And when one reads the entire article, one doesn't know if this is an editorial piece written by the White House or if it's supposed to be a news story. It certainly is not a news story in the strict sense. It's an editorial. Period. Dot.
No wonder the president went on vacation.