Local Market Monitor, a National REIA preferred vendor, recently released their National Economic Outlook for August, 2018 where they share their thoughts on developments taking place in the U.S. economy. Interestingly, they find “the high level of consumer spending a bit disturbing” and suspect it might have been built on borrowed money & credit cards.
National Economic Outlook – August 2018
August 14, 2018
By Ingo WinzerI normally don’t pay much attention to the Gross Domestic Product. I’m not an economist and how you can accurately estimate the output of as large and complicated an economy as the US to within a percentage point is thankfully beyond my understanding. Furthermore, the swings from one quarter to the next are sometimes so large that the number in an quarter seems meaningless. The last time GDP was over 4 percent (4.9 percent, in the third quarter of 2014), in the very next quarter it was 1.9 percent.
But the 4.1 percent GDP growth in the second quarter of this year has been trumpeted as evidence of a very strong economy, so we better have a closer look. The largest portion of the 4.1 percent was 2.7 percent due to consumer spending. Other than that, exports were up, imports held steady, and the government spent a bit more. I actually find the high level of consumer spending a bit disturbing because I strongly suspect it was built on borrowed money – credit cards.
GDP is an income statement, not a balance sheet, and if GDP looks good only because consumers keep borrowing, what’s good in the short run will have bad consequences down the road. The next GDP report comes out in late October, just in time for the elections.
Overall, jobs in July were up 1.6 percent from last year, the same level we’ve been at for months. Jobs were up 2.6 percent in manufacturing – this is a big deal if it continues. Manufacturing is now just 10 percent of the economy (measured by jobs) but if it’s doing better because US factories have become more efficient, we can expect the entire sector to keep growing for years.
Jobs were up 2.6 percent in business services, 1.8 percent in healthcare, 1.8 percent at restaurants, 1.3 percent in finance, and just 0.6 percent in retail trade. As always, government jobs were flat.
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About the Author: Ingo Winzer is President of Local Market Monitor, and has analyzed real estate markets for more than 20 years. His views on real estate markets are often quoted in the national press and in 2005, he warned that many housing markets were dangerously over-priced. Previously, Ingo was a founder and Executive Vice President of First Research, an industry research company that was acquired by Dun and Bradstreet in March 2007. He is a graduate of MIT and holds an MBA in Finance from Boston University. He resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.