US growth could pass 3%, says Greenspan... but that's not much to cheer about

For all of you who have lost 30-40% of the value of your home and investments, this may not be all that exciting. From FT.com:

US growth could pass 3%, says Greenspan

By Anna Fifield in Washington

Published: October 4 2009 22:29 | Last updated: October 4 2009 22:29

US growth could exceed 3 per cent this quarter as the economic recovery takes hold, Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, said on Sunday, in spite of a rise in unemployment numbers.

But the Obama administration should not intervene again to prop up the economy because its stimulus package had yet to take full effect, Mr Greenspan told ABC TV’s This Week programme.

“It looks as though it’s going to be 3 per cent, maybe possibly even higher,” Mr Greenspan said when asked if he still stood by his August prediction of 2.5 per cent growth in the final quarter of 2009.

“The problem with knowing what the third quarter is going to look like is we won’t get all of the data for several months. So there is a lot guesswork involved,” he said. “But it’s on track, at this stage, for more than 2.5 per cent.”

Read more....

For those of you confused by percentages, just remember this: for every 33.3333% decrease, it takes a 50% increase to offset the loss. Okay, okay... here is an example:

Starting point 100

33.3333% loss goes to 66.6667

50% increase goes to 100

Similarly, a 25% loss requires a 33.3333% increase to offset it. It takes more effort to create wealth than destroy it... and the mathematics prove that. And the bigger the percentage loss, the bigger... proportionally... the percentage gain needed to offset it.