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US economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6%

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Re: US economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6%

#131

This is the weirdest "recession" I can remember. Business leaders are constantly talking about how challenging the economic environment is and the need for layoffs etc. Meanwhile most of the underlying indicators are actually positive. Growth is strong, employment is strong. Anecdotally we're still having trouble finding good candidates. It's almost like there is a class of business leaders who are just trying to wis…

It is weird, they say history does not repeat but it rhymes. What is troubling about this good news about GDP growth is the fed's course of raising interest rates will continue on and interest rates will keep getting higher and higher. This will lead to a housing market that will grind to a halt and expect that whole sector will hemorrhage jobs. In addition growth companies will be hit hard by rates being high as we…

Perhaps the housing market is obese from low interest rates, and will be healthier after a bit of dieting.

Society would be healthier if the housing market wasn't managed to be a retirement fund. Would likely end homelessness.

Re: US economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6%

#132

This is the weirdest "recession" I can remember. Business leaders are constantly talking about how challenging the economic environment is and the need for layoffs etc. Meanwhile most of the underlying indicators are actually positive. Growth is strong, employment is strong. Anecdotally we're still having trouble finding good candidates. It's almost like there is a class of business leaders who are just trying to wis…

Everyone forgot the denominator. In terms of GDP/kWh of energy or GDP/calorie of food, we are still seeing sharp decline. Instead, we are measuring in dollars.

When inflation starts to hit salaries and debt needs to be rolled, we will start to see more business contraction. That is what business leaders are planning for.

Re: US economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6%

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is weird, they say history does not repeat but it rhymes. What is troubling about this good news about GDP growth is the fed's course of raising interest rates will continue on and interest rates will keep getting higher and higher. This will lead to a housing market that will grind to a halt and expect that whole sector will hemorrhage jobs. In addition growth companies will be hit hard by rates being high as we…

Mortgage rates at 7% is pretty much the average mortgage rate going back 70 years or so. We're basically at the average mortgage rate now. The Fed screwed up by keeping rates too low for too long which juiced home prices such that a huge chunk of people who would like to be able to buy a home are priced out of the market. The problem, though, is that home building needs to continue in order to improve the housing sup…

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Re: US economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6%

#134
This is terrible news. Without a recession to curb inflation, the fed will have to get far more extreme with interest rates to get inflation back down. I thought that rates might top out around the end of the year, but now the fed may have to keep raising aggressively well into next year. Mortgages and the housing market are going to get slammed. This is going to get much worse than I previously expected.

Re: US economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6%

#136

This is the weirdest "recession" I can remember. Business leaders are constantly talking about how challenging the economic environment is and the need for layoffs etc. Meanwhile most of the underlying indicators are actually positive. Growth is strong, employment is strong. Anecdotally we're still having trouble finding good candidates. It's almost like there is a class of business leaders who are just trying to wis…

There never was a real recession - it's an artifact of year-over-year numbers that were so skewed from pandemic effects.

Pent-up consumer demand shifted much activity from 2020 into 2021. This is the source of all the apparent weirdness. Every yearly number in 2021 looked great thanks to comparing an artificially high number to an artificially low 2020 baseline. Then every yearly number from 2022 looks terrible, because it's comparing to 2021's number that was artificially high from time-shifted demand.

Remember the "great resignation"? That was an illusion - it was just normal pent-up demand for job switching that didn't happen during the pandemic. The inflation of 2022 is also largely an illusion - it's really just that a few percentage points of what should have been normal inflation in 2020 and first-half 2021 was time-shifted into 2022. (The inflation is real, but the timing is an illusion - it's not really 8% per year, it's a fairly normal 12% over three years.)

If you believe any year-over-year number from 2021 or 2022, you're falling for headline click-bait without considering the underlying irregularities.

Re: US economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6%

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The stock market, interest rates, and advertising spending are leading indicators, while unemployment is a lagging indicator. Business leaders know the financial structure of their company, and many of them know that they can't survive at 2% rates, let alone 5 or 10% rates. The gloom from business leaders is forward-looking. They're fine for now , while consumer spending holds up and they can run on old debt. But as…

>they manage as if a Fed pivot is coming We can't argue this both ways. You can't argue that business leaders are acting as if the fed will pivot away from the current course when the parent is pointing out that they are all tightening in preparation for more to come.

Sure you can. They are expecting the tightening to be short lived. As they said, the companies can survive a few years but if rates stay high longer than that and don't come down it'll be bad.

Re: US economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6%

#138

This is the weirdest "recession" I can remember. Business leaders are constantly talking about how challenging the economic environment is and the need for layoffs etc. Meanwhile most of the underlying indicators are actually positive. Growth is strong, employment is strong. Anecdotally we're still having trouble finding good candidates. It's almost like there is a class of business leaders who are just trying to wis…

The stock market, interest rates, and advertising spending are leading indicators, while unemployment is a lagging indicator. Business leaders know the financial structure of their company, and many of them know that they can't survive at 2% rates, let alone 5 or 10% rates. The gloom from business leaders is forward-looking. They're fine for now , while consumer spending holds up and they can run on old debt. But as…

Is there any indication that ad spending LEADS consumer spending?

I can't imagine why anyone would turn down ads while ROAS is blazing.

Marketers / ad people - is this common? If so, why?

Re: US economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6%

#139
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry, population collapse will fix this in another ~20-30 years. You'll get there.

Depending on where you live, population collapse is either a myth, meme, overblown but remote possibility, or absolute certainty. In most western nations, it's not going to be that big of a deal, I wager. In areas with net emigration, especially those that are not good at sharing true demographics with their leaders, it'll be devastating.

In the US and the Americas it won't have a severe impact. Most countries in America should hold up, and Canada has relatively high immigration levels, so there's that.

Much of Europe and large parts of Asia (China! Japan. Korea.) will face jaw dropping population collapses, happening now and in the near future.

Re: US economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6%

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be real fun when the strategic oil reserve runs out / stop draining it after November Election. Nothing was done to increase domestic supply. And OPEC has decided to tighten the screws on us.

"U.S. oil production is almost 12 million barrels per day. By the end of this year, it will be up by about one million barrels per day compared to when President Biden took office, and it is on track to reach a new annual high in 2023. However, a number of industry participants have suggested that, even with today’s high prices, they are concerned about investing in production when prices could fall in the future. Th…

> $67 to $72 per barrel.

The WH is going to have to wait a bit for those prices. Right now WTI is $89/bbl:

https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/@CL.1

Last time price fell below $72 was December '21.

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