by Chris Becker
Friday night saw the release of the much anticipated second quarter US GDP print with the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reporting 0.6% growth, or 2.6% annualised. While this was much better than the first quarter, and only slightly below expectations, the so-called acceleration is seasonal and does not represent a new firing of cylinders to get the growth engine going as the Trump administration’s domestic political agenda remains stalled.
Indeed, as Bill McBride at Calculated Risk shows, the internal components of US growth are not running at full strength but have the potential to do so if Congress can get things moving.