Opening Statement from the July 2012 Intelligent Investor

The U.S. economy added just 80,000 jobs in June, bringing the average over the last four months to 92,000. This compares to a monthly rate of 252,000 for the three months from November to February. Meanwhile, U.S. GDP for 2012 Q1 remained at 1.9% after the first phase of revisions. Clearly, GDP is set to fall through 2012 from this very modest growth rate.