Last Thursday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released preliminary estimates for real GDP growth in the first quarter of 2024. The 1.6% was the worst quarterly performance since the economy contracted 0.6% in the second quarter of 2022, almost two years ago. This is a growth level one-third lower than the 2.4% expected by economists. Compared to the interest rate of 3.4% in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 4.9% in the third quarter of 2023, it fell significantly.