It’s no secret that the U.S. economy isn’t doing especially well. But there’s a cliché – one that I’ve repeated myself – that conditions are improving, even if progress is disappointingly slow. That notion was exploded two weeks ago when the Department of Commerce estimated that GDP actually declined in the fourth quarter of 2012. It’s true that the drop wasn’t very big and was offset to some extent by better-than-expected results earlier in the year. But when you average results for the past four quarters, overall growth last year amounted to only half the normal rate, and there’s not really any upward trend. Those r ... (full story)