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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. urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
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City urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags place JEFFREY BROWN: An important snapshot
of the country's economic growth was released today, a week-and-a-half before the election
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