Just as much of the emphasis of the political discourse in Washington has been on the economy of late, a great deal of our investment decisions is influenced by our views on both the current state of the economy and our forecast for future economic growth. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the U.S. economy has grown for twelve consecutive quarters, but the pace of the growth has been slow and below historical economic recovery averages. Evidence of this slow growth can be found in the paltry 1.3% revised Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annualized growth rate for the 2nd quarter of 2012.Read more