The US: Do we have a George Costanza economy? (Video)

Much like George blaming swimming in a cold pool for his shrinkage, can the negative 1% reading in GDP actually be attributed to weather?

Much of the blame for any of the current economic weakness in the United States is being placed on harsh winter weather as in this note from AP:

‘The U.S. economy was battered even more than first suspected by the harsh winter, actually shrinking from January through March. The result marked the first retreat in three years, but economists are confident the downturn was temporary.‘

Now call me cynical but as the saying goes one of the two best jobs in America is economist (the other being meteorologist) because they are so often wrong and with no apparent recourse.

The fact of the matter is that after trillions of dollars injected into the economy through quantitative easing, the growth in the US economy pre-harsh winter weather was sluggish at best and extremely disappointing and worrisome at the worst.

The question then is that if we give the economists the benefit of the doubt this time and accept their explanation for economic weakness this time as gospel, what exactly will growth look like going forward now that the weather has improved?

Can the Fed ever taper if stimulus has really not done the trick to this point? And will throwing more money at the problem by continuing QE actually solve the problem? Maybe we should ask a meteorologist for their opinion?