Our Chief Economist, Dr. Martin Regalia, issued the following statement today on data showing that U.S. economic growth slowed to an annual rate of 2.4% in the second quarter of this year from a revised first quarter growth rate of 3.7%:

The data for real growth released today confirms the belief that the economy is slowing sharply.

The data also contained revisions to the last three years' data. These revisions showed stronger growth last quarter than previously reported but much slower growth in the last half of last year. It appears that the recession was even worse than previously thought. Thus, while the recession was somewhat deeper than originally thought, the recovery was also much more tepid that previously thought and is slowing rather than accelerating.

These data are a clear indication that the policies to date have not produced sufficiently strong growth.