Morning Cowbell: 1st Q GDP Revised Upwards, Plus Other Cool Shit

I forget now, is the good news in the War on Terror a distraction from the economy, or is the good news about the economy a distraction from the War on Terror? It gets so confusing:

The U.S. economy expanded at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the first quarter, faster than the government previously estimated, as the trade deficit shrank and consumer spending was stronger than initially calculated.

The second estimate of gross domestic product, the total volume of goods and services produced in the U.S., follows an advance calculation of 3.1 percent reported April 28 and growth of 3.8 percent in the final three months of 2004, the Commerce Department said today in Washington.

The figures reinforce the suggestion yesterday from Jack Guynn, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, that the U.S. Fed can keep raising interest rates to control inflation and not derail the expansion. The report may also help quell concern that the world's largest economy is losing momentum because of higher energy prices, economists said.

``Energy prices may have contributed to caution in business spending, but consumer spending is still quite strong and real estate is through the roof,'' said Mike Englund, chief economist at Action Economics LLC in Boulder, Colorado, before the report. ``The economy isn't showing much sign of weakening, and with hindsight this looks like a period of strong and steady growth.''

Inflation accelerated from the fourth quarter, although today's report showed no increase in the previous estimates for the January-March period. Corporate profits grew less than in the fourth quarter. Spending on home construction soared.

Thank you, Vinny Falcone, for watching over our economy
and riding its ass, and insuring no loose shit happens during
our quarterly cut-offs.

Thank you, Gene Frenkle, for playing that cowbell...
like the wind.

And thank you most of all, Paul Krugman, for inducing
the economy to grow, by hyp-mo-tizin' it with your crazy-eyes.

Guess what? I got a feeveh. And the only. Prescription. Is more cowbell. I gotta have more cowbell.

Thanks again for that kickin' theme to Blaster's Blog.

And thanks to Morpheus for the actual tip.

Geeze. Lot of thank yous on this. Worse than Sean Penn receiving the Irving G. Thalberg Lifetime Achievement Award for Being a Good Actor While Simultaneously Being a Completely Humorless Prick.

Can We Break Out of the Range-Bound Funk? Update: Sure would be nice to see the Dow finally get above 10,800 or so in the next couple of weeks.