Ouch: U.S. economy stumbles with 0.7 percent growth in 4Q 2015

We’re always told that consistent economic growth will get us out of all our fiscal problems. That’s not true, although it would certainly help. We recently told you that deficit projections for coming years are looking pretty scary, and even those projections depend on some pretty rosy assumptions about future economic growth. The Congressional Budget Office is assuming 2.7 percent growth this year and 2.5 percent next year. Is that warranted considering that we’ve averaged just barely above 2 percent since 2010? The news that came out on Friday certainly isn’t encouraging. The gross domestic product sputtered to growth of only 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015 – which, for those of you keeping score, is terrible.