Amid all of the doomsday talk this week about the debt ceiling, there is a flicker of hope for the U.S. economy this morning. Weekly jobless claims dropped below key 400,000 level for the first time since early April – a sign of stable job growth. Tomorrow, the government is expected to report that the economy grew at a 1.8 percent annual rate. Mike Munger, professor of political science and economics at Duke University, decodes these numbers and says the deadlock in Washington threatens to derail whatever growth these numbers show.
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