Initial claims came in, this morning, slightly higher (317,000) than expected (310,000). While retail sales were, on the other hand, slightly lower. Expectations (i.e. hopes) were for an increase of 0.6 percent. Seems we’ll have to settle for half that. Which would lead one to conclude that the economic bounce off the floor of a 1st quarter during which the economy shrunk may not be all that forecasters – and just about everyone else – had hoped. Now, in fact, we hear talk of an era of slow growth.

As Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times reports: