For the last two years, the U.S. economy has opened the year with a bang, only so slip back afterward. And some experts fear the same pattern is developing in 2012.
Europe’s debt crisis is heating up again, with worry now intensifying about Spain. In the U.S. economic indicators such as employment are starting to worsen, and oil prices remain high.
There is a “light recovery blowing in a spring wind” with “dark clouds on the horizon,” Christine Lagarde , managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said in a speech Thursday, referring to the global economic situation, The New York Times reports.
Editor's Note: Obama’s Economic ‘Fix’ is In . . .
To be sure, most economists aren’t looking for a catastrophe. Much of the slip reflects the very warm winter weather, which allowed the economy to borrow growth in winter from what normally would come in spring, experts say.
“After a few months of good data, people got more aggressive with their expectations,” Ian Shepherdson, an analyst at High Frequency Economics, tells The Times. “The data are having a brief pause, or a consolidation. The consensus forecast had gotten stronger, so it’s easy to overshoot.”
Nonetheless, weak reports for jobless claims and existing home sales Thursday helped put economists in a bearish mood.
"The economy has slowed a notch," Ryan Sweet, senior economist at Moody's Analytics, tells Bloomberg. "We're just not going to be able to duplicate the growth we saw in the first quarter."
Editor's Note: Obama’s Economic ‘Fix’ is In . . .
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