The federal government said the first quarter of 2017 grew at an anemic  0.7%, the first economic report card for the Trump administration.

As I wrote earlier today, I thought the number would come in a little higher than the Atlanta Fed’s 0.2%, since that would be an indication we were on the verge of a recession.

Combining this weak number with March’s poor 98K new jobs report would make the Fed need to pause on its planned rate rise for 2017, just as I have written. 2017 will be another one and done year for rate hikes.

This number also shows how clueless the NY Federal Reserve Bank is with its 2.7% estimate for the last quarter. Just look at hiring and the retail sector along with credit card default rates to see we are nowhere near that type of growth.