WALL STREET JOURNAL: …The Commerce Department said Thursday the nation’s gross domestic product—the government’s broadest measure of economic output—expanded at a 3.7% seasonally adjusted annual rate in the spring, faster than the initial estimate of a 2.3% growth rate. Other recent reports have shown gains in consumer confidence, retail sales and home building.
Still, the second-quarter rebound, after a weak start to the year, appears unlikely to presage substantial acceleration for an economy that had been held back for years by low productivity growth, slow wage growth, a reduced share of Americans in the workforce and hesitance to spend by businesses and households.
Indeed, the economy expanded at a plodding 2.2% rate for the first half of the year, and Thursday’s GDP numbers detail a three-month stretch that ended in June, before concerns about China battered global markets and introduced greater uncertainty into forecasts for the U.S. economy… (more)
