Regarding Dr. Tom Patterson's sermon praising the Ayn Rand kook, Paul Ryan's budget plan demonstrates his adamant determination to remain unconfused by economic facts.

WASHINGTON - The economy grew at a 2.9 percent annual rate in the spring - better than first estimated but nowhere near the brisk pace logged in the winter, another sign of slowing business growth. Inflation marched higher.

WASHINGTON - Brisk business spending helped the economy expand at a healthy 4.1 percent pace at the end of 2003, raising hopes that the recovery will be durable and spur more meaningful job growth in the coming months.

WASHINGTON - America’s economy cooled from its red-hot pace in the final three months of 2003 but still advanced at a 4 percent annual rate — strong evidence the recovery was on solid ground heading into the new year.

NEW YORK - Wall Street displayed some welcome signs of stability Thursday, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average up nearly 190 points in a relatively calm session despite some downbeat economic news. Even the last hour of trading, lately a period of turbulent activity, was comparatively quiet.

CAIRO, Egypt - A sharp rise in oil prices has led the gross domestic product of Arab states last year to increase to more than $1 trillion for the first time, the chairman of a pan-Arab economic council said Sunday.

NEW YORK - Another late rally gave Wall Street a modest advance Friday despite a spike in oil prices and a lower-than-expected hike in the gross domestic product that raised new questions about the economy. The major indexes ended the week higher for the first time in over a month, but ended July with steep losses.

NEW YORK - Investors perturbed by the government's latest gross domestic product report sent stocks sliding sharply lower today, halting a two-day rally. The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 160 points, giving the blue chips a two-week loss of nearly 900 points.

NEW YORK - Investors perturbed by the government’s latest gross domestic product report sent stocks sliding sharply lower Thursday, halting a two-day rally. The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 160 points, giving the blue chips a two-week loss of nearly 900 points.

NEW YORK - Stocks rallied sharply Friday, with the Dow gained 172 points on better-than-expected gross domestic product growth last quarter despite the disruptions caused hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The major indexes finished an erratic week higher.

WASHINGTON - The country's economic performance in the opening quarter of 2005 was better than first thought, logging a solid 3.5 percent annual growth rate in a new sign of a strong springtime business expansion.

Arizona’s gross domestic product increased faster than the national average — but the state still lags behind the rest of the country.

WASHINGTON - The economy roared ahead at an astounding 8.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the fastest pace in nearly two decades and a much stronger performance than previously thought. It raises hope that a long spell of lackluster business activity is finally over.

In “Dumbing down the American Dream” (AFN, April 29), Susan S. Brown exposes herself as a gullible victim of lying Republican propaganda, totally unconfused by readily available facts. Brown’s claim that the Carter 1980 recession was even worse than the 2008 Bush recession is a preposterous joke. Carter’s final year had positive gross domestic product (GDP) growth. But in Bush’s final year, GDP suffered a catastrophic 2.7-percent decline, worst performance in more than a half century, and lost more than 4 million jobs.

Guess what conservatives?

On March 6, Rod Livdahl wrote a full column with all the answers. Only thing is he quoted the wrong facts. He writes all about the presidents in office as the debt mounted. The big problem is the president can only veto bills, not write them.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said Tuesday the proposed national sequestration cuts could have harmful effects on the local scale.

The rooster crows and the sun comes up. Thus, the rooster must be the cause of the sunrise. This kind of reasoning was applied in a recent letter which argued that "trickle down" economics do not work and "tax cuts kill jobs and GDP."

It started out as "supply-side economics." Then it became "trickle down economics."

WASHINGTON -- The economy sank at a pace of just 1 percent in the second quarter of the year, a new government report shows. It was a better-than-expected showing that provided the strongest signal yet that the longest recession since World War II is finally winding down. Graphic: GDP

WASHINGTON - More help wanted signs could be cropping up soon. Respectable economic growth could spur employers to pick up hiring in the coming months, some analysts say.

WASHINGTON – Economic growth in Arizona’s metropolitan areas was a fraction of the national growth rate for metro areas in 2010, according to figures released Tuesday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

PARIS -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked world leaders to join a "revolution" in the measurement of economic progress by dropping their obsession with gross domestic product to account for factors such as health-care availability and leisure time.