The economy is growing! The economy is growing!
A new report, released yesterday, says that real growth in gross domestic product (GDP) -- otherwise known as "the economy" -- was 1.9% during the second quarter. Trouble is, this data comes with two giant caveats:
- Growth was lower than the 2.3% economists had expected.
- Gross domestic purchases -- a measure of demand -- fell for the second time in the last three quarters.
Translated, this means that the much-ballyhooed stimulus package likely had some effect, but not as much as the experts thought it might. Me? I'm not surprised at all.
I'm not a number-cruncher or a brilliant prognosticator. I just know what I read in my credit card and home equity statements, and in my paycheck. I'm making less, I'm paying interest on borrowings, and my savings options aren't thrilling. The average five-year CD from credit-crunched financiers such as Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), and Wachovia (NYSE:WB) is just 4.13%, Bankrate reports.
I can beat that -- easily -- by paying down debt. Chances are you can, too. The Federal Reserve says that U.S. consumers held $961.8 billion in revolving credit in May, up 7% over last year. Credit card interest rates, meanwhile, remain firmly in the double-digits -- a sliver of sunshine that illuminates an otherwise murky view for plastic-pushers such as Citigroup (NYSE:C).
Pay off the 20% you're paying to hold a balance on the world's worst credit card, or spend on more crap to "boost the economy?" Consumers, even when it isn't in their economic interest to do, tend to choose the latter. But this is the new look-at-how-little-buying-power-the-U.S.-dollar-has-now economy, and they finally appear to realize that the price of plastic is too high.
"Credit card spending in general is much softer," Visa (NYSE:V) CEO Joe Saunders said in describing credit use in the U.S. during this week's earnings conference call. "It's not down, but it's marginally up, in the low single digits. Our debit card spending, on the other hand, has continued to grow and is very robust."
Less credit, more cash -- now that's the sort of long-term stimulus a Fool can appreciate. It's the kind that leads to interest earned, rather than interest paid.
Get your clicks with related Foolishness:
- Find out whether you're due for a staycation.
- Hello, Uncle Sam? You're drowning in debt.
- Broke? Out of a job? Homeless? Welcome to the U.S. economy.
