Fastest Growth in Four Years

I got this title listening to George Will spin and Paul Krugman correcting the spin on ABC’s This Week. Will excuses the weak economy by saying voters care not about the state of the economy but its current direction saying recent real GDP growth has been strong. Never mind that Bush himself has said he’s for sustained growth. Will knows that the average annual growth rate will likely be only 2.5% per year for the Bush years as compared to 3.7% for the Clinton years.

But then Dr. Krugman notes that the growth over the past year has been less than the growth from mid-1999 to mid-2000. While real GDP in 2004QII was 4.77% higher than it was in 2003QII, real GDP in 2000QII was 4.85% higher than it was in 1999QII. So the line “fastest growth in 20 years” is not true, but I guess “fastest growth since Bush took office” will not play very well.