The latest news out of Washington on economic activity is as calamitous as the recent report on job growth: The economy is expanding just as anemically.
Indeed, there has never been an economy this sluggish three years after the official end of a recession.
The Commerce Department reported Friday that economic growth slowed in the second quarter, April through June, to an annual rate of just 1.5%.
That wasn’t entirely unexpected — but it’s no less troubling.
After all, annual growth in 2010 was just 2.4%, and only 1.8% last year.
In the first quarter of this year, the rate was 2%.
Not surprisingly, the White House put the best possible spin on things, citing the 12th straight quarter of economic growth.
The body is barely breathing, in other words, but it’s not a corpse quite yet.
Give it time, alas.
And this tepid growth reflects the worries and uncertainties for both businesses and consumers about what lies ahead.
Like the so-called “fiscal cliff” at the end of the year — when the Bush tax cuts are set to expire, because Democrats refuse to extend them for all Americans, including small-business owners.
Couple that with the coming spending cuts mandated by last year’s deal to raise the debt ceiling — and you have the makings of economic calamity.
No wonder businesses are refusing to hire and consumers are refusing to spend, especially on big-ticket items — preferring instead to salt away more of their money in savings for the rainy days to come.
This is especially true of small businesses, which traditionally power the jobs market, just as consumer spending drives some 70% of economic activity.
But if people don’t spend, those businesses can’t afford to increase hiring.
President Obama, of course, will continue to shift blame away from his own record.
But as November draws closer, looming over this race is the successful slogan from the last campaign that saw a president go down to defeat: It’s the economy, stupid.