SBE Council Chief Economist Comments on Second Quarter GDP Growth

Today, Raymond J. Keating, chief economist for the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council), issued the following statement about the second quarter GDP numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis:

“Real GDP growth of 1.5% in the second quarter, following on 2% in the first quarter, is simply abysmal.  In fact, this entire recovery has been one of the worst on record. Real GDP growth over the past three years has averaged 2.2 percent, when we should be growing at double that rate during a recovery.

“One of the great dangers of continually poor GDP numbers for four-and-a-half years now is falling into the trap of diminished expectations. Make no mistake, the U.S. should not accept poor economic growth as some kind of new normal. Instead, serious pro-growth policy changes, such as tax and regulatory relief and stability, reining in government spending, and leading on trade, would put the U.S. back on a path of robust entrepreneurship, investment, growth and job creation.”