US Economy Sluggish, Though Texas’ is Slightly Better

moneyDallas (WBAP/KLIF News) – In the quarter ending on June 30th, the American economy grew less than 2%, and that’s sluggish at best. So says SMU economist Dr. Bernard Weinstein, who says consumer spending was good, but an important aspect of a healthy economy is missing.

“Primarily, the lack of business investment,” said Weinstein.  “Even though the economy overall is doing reasonably well, businesses have been reluctant to invest in new plants and equipment.”

That eventually affects job creation, which has been hurting…not so much the number of jobs created, but the types of jobs.

“Right now, we’re just kind of mogging along.  We have created lots of new jobs, but they’ve been mainly at the lower end of the wage spectrum.”

Weinstein says Texas is bucking the national trend for the most part, and doing fairly well despite the drop in oil prices.  Last year, Texas’ economy created 175,000 jobs, but he pointed out that is down from 300,000 just two years ago.

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