Fed Revises Economic Growth Down, Again

President Obama is going to need yet another scandal to distract attention from this.

Fed officials said they now expected the economy to expand between 1.9 percent and 2.4 percent this year, down from an April forecast of 2.4 percent to 2.9 percent.

The economic forecast, released separately, reflected reduced prospects for 2013 as well. The Fed estimated growth of between 2.2 percent and 2.8 percent, down from 2.7 percent and 3.1 percent in the April forecast.

Growth at that pace would barely dent unemployment and, indeed, the Fed also reeled in its expectations for a continued decline in the unemployment rate. It now expects the rate to sit between 7.5 and 8 percent at the end of 2013, up from an April forecast of 7.3 to 7.7 percent.

Fast and Furious, executive privilege or not, numbers like that typically don’t get a president re-elected.