Closing the White House to tours was a loud message to the world: the US is in deep financial trouble. It cannot even afford to provide White House tours. Was that warranted?
Reuters is reporting:
U.S. economic growth was more tepid than previously estimated in the first quarter, held back by a moderate pace of consumer spending, weak business investment and declining exports.
Gross domestic product expanded at a 1.8 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said in its final estimate on Wednesday. Output was previously reported to have risen at a 2.4 percent pace after a 0.4 percent stall speed in the fourth quarter.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected first-quarter GDP growth would be left unrevised at 2.4 percent. When measured from the income side, the economy grew at a 2.5 percent rate, slower than the fourth-quarter's brisk 5.5 percent pace.
North Dakota's GDP was recently reported to be 10 - 13% in 2012. I forget the specifics. China's GDP is around 7.5.
GDP continues to fall. Does one honestly think the Fed will taper any time soon? Apparently the market doesn't think so: futures are up again, today, on the news.
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Note to the Granddaughters
I left the Boston area at 9:20, Monday night, on the trip back to Dallas. It's a 1,700 mile trip according to Google.
Some quick observations.
It is impossible for me to describe how beautiful (and big) the United States is.
Boston to Connecticut: uneventful. We knew the area well from you time in the Boston area.
I-84 just west of New York City was a non-problem; traveling through late during the night. I thought it would be a bigger problem.
Traveling through Harrisburg during daylight reminded me of walking through the city 40 years ago almost exactly to the day. I was on hitchhiking cross-country with three "things" happening simultaneously: a) I was going to spend the summer in Europe (which I did); b) I bookended the summer with the first love of my life who was going to school in Boston at the time; and, c) I was in the process of arranging for my own graduate school programs. The summer of 1973 was a huge, huge summer for me. And a moment of that summer was spent in Harrisburg.
I-84, south, from Pennsylvania to Knoxville carries you through some of the most beautiful scenery in the country. The weather cooperated. The interstate was in awful condition in Pennsylvania -- probably similar to the roads in the Bakken oil patch. Interestingly, the interstate kept improving the farther south I got, by in west Virginia and Tennessee in many spots it was recently re-covered.
Plenty of country western music stations to listen to.
I learned a bit more about the Bible traveling through west Virginian into Tennessee. I think the radio stations in this area are pretty much evenly divided between country music and religion.
I took the bypass around Nashville; I hit the metropolitan area at morning rush-hour and didn't want to get trapped in that traffic. I have many, many memories of Nashville, also, having spent time there in the summer of 1971 going to sales school prior to beginning my summer job in Westfield, NJ, that summer.
Going into the Nashville metropolitan area I listened to Johnny Rivers. My freshman roommate in college, Rick Nelson, idolized Johnny Rivers. Rivers subsequently become one of my favorites. One always wonder why some successful artists become super successful and others, simply, successful.
So, at the moment, I am west of Nashville. As noted earlier: McDonald's has free wi-fi but no outlets (that appears to be corporate policy). Starbucks has free wi-fi AND outlets. I haven't seen a Starbucks in quite some time, but the next time I do, I will stop, recharge the computer and enjoy another cup of coffee.
I am enjoying this trip so much, I may drive from Dallas to Los Angeles early next week to spend the "Fourth of July" with May and the granddaughters who are already there.
