Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal were predicting that we would learn, this morning, that Gross Domestic Product had grown by 3.2 percent in the last quarter. Sorry about that; the economy said as the number came in at 2.5 percent.  

We were warned, yesterday, by Neil Irwin at the Washington Post, not to get too carried away when a number around 3% came in.  For one thing, it would be somewhat distorted by one time events such as large dividend payments at the end of  calendar ’12 in anticipation of the new tax rates and, also, the end of the payroll tax cuts.  Another case of Washington sending out contradictory signals and these things might cancel out but … who knows?  Anyway, best not to get carried away by a 3% number.  A good way of keeping things in perspective, Irwin concluded, would be to: