DeKalb Times

Following the release of new economic data, U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood blamed President Biden's policies for the shrinking U.S. economy.

"The U.S. economy shrank 1.4% in the first quarter of 2022," the congressman tweeted. "President Biden’s disastrous economic policies are accelerating inflation and harming Illinois families, small businesses, and workers."

Although the report was unexpectedly negative, the news did not seem to affect the stock market, which seems to be an indicator of how the economy is chugging along., CNBC reported "The negative growth rate missed even the subdued Dow Jones estimate of a 1% gain for the quarter, but the initial estimate for Q1 was the worst since the pandemic-induced recession in 2020," the network reported.                    

The New York Times reported that the decline may not be as bad as it looks at first glance.  "But the negative number masked evidence of a recovery that economists said remained fundamentally strong," the story said. "the decline — 1.4 percent on an annualized basis — mostly resulted from the way inventories and trade figure in the calculation, as well as reduced government spending as  Covid-19 relief efforts wind down. Measures of underlying demand showed solid growth. Most important, consumer spending, the engine of the U.S. economy, grew  0.7 percent in the first quarter despite soaring gas prices and the  Omicron wave of the coronavirus, which restrained spending on  restaurants, travel and similar services in January."                  

 A report from the U.S. Commerce Department revealed that when looking at the big picture of 2021, "the economy grew 5.7 percent, the highest calendar-year expansion since 1984," NBC reported.