Nerd Talk: Growth Trends and Final Sales to Private Domestic Purchasers

Matt O'Brien had a good piece on yesterday's GDP numbers noting that we are not seeing the investment boom promised by promoters of the tax cut. However he argued that growth was likely to remain close to 3.0 percent based on the 3.1 percent growth rate reported in final sales to private domestic purchasers. In my GDP write-up I was somewhat less optimistic about near-term growth prospects, pointing to the 1.4 percent growth rate in final sales.

The difference in these two measures is that th...