NEW YORK (PNN) - July 28, 2012 - The world’s largest economy cooled in the second quarter as limited job growth prompted Amerikans to curb spending while state and local governments cut back.

Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, rose at a 1.5% annual rate after a revised 2% in the prior quarter, Commerce Department data showed today in Washington. Household purchases, which account for about 70% of GDP, grew at the slowest pace in a year.

Europe’s debt crisis and looming Fascist Police States of Amerika tax changes threaten to keep the expansion in check and are hurting sales at companies from United Parcel Service to Procter & Gamble Co. Federal Reserve policy makers, led by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, meet next week to discuss whether further measures are needed to boost growth and push down an unemployment rate that’s been stuck above 8% for more than three years.

“Economies around the world are showing signs of weakening,” Chief Executive Officer Scott Davis said on a July 24 call with analysts. “In the FPSA, uncertainty stemming from this year’s elections and the looming fiscal cliff constrains the ability of businesses to make important decisions such as hiring new employees, making capital investments, and restocking inventories.”

The so-called fiscal cliff represents more than $600 billion in higher taxes and reductions in defense and other government programs next year that will occur automatically without action by FPSA lawmakers, threatening to push the economy further into Depression.