This is cute …
President Donald Trump’s first GDP report will be marred by something that he has at various times said doesn’t exist: climate change.
Early Friday, the Commerce Department released the latest data on consumer spending. The number wasn’t great: up just 0.1% in February, or down by the same magnitude when inflation is counted.
But look at what consumers aren’t spending money on. Household utilities spending dropped 2% in February, and 2017 household utilities spending is down about 7% from fourth-quarter levels.
That’s not a surprise. It was the second-warmest February in 123 years. The December-through-February period was the second warmest on record, trailing only the prior year.
With that unexpected reason for not turning on, or up, the heat, Americans quite reasonably pocketed rather than spent the remainder. The savings rate has grown from 5.2% in December to 5.4% in January and 5.6% in February.
Reasonable behavior or not, first-quarter GDP isn’t going to look good. The latest incarnation of the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow tracker forecasts GDP growth of just 0.9%, and consumption growth of 0.8%, the latter of which would be the worst showing in nearly four years.
Wocka, wocka