Some curious language from a brief Kate Bramson article in today’s Providence Journal.  Bryant’s Center for Global and Regional Economic Studies revised its first-quarter year-over-year economic growth estimate for Rhode Island down to 1.6%, from 3.0% and projects that the second quarter will actually show a drop of 1.2%.  By comparison, New England’s average was 1.5% for the first quarter and 0.4% for the second.  But here’s where the curious phrasing comes in:

Nationally, the economic outlook is brighter, with the U.S. Gross Domestic Product increasing at an annualized rate of 1.2 percent in the second quarter, compared with 0.8 percent in the first quarter.

How strange for 1.2% growth, following 0.8% growth, to be a “brighter outlook.”  Sure, compared with a shrinking economy, even no growth at all would be preferable, but it’s a testament to the “new normal” under Democrat President Barack Obama and the all-too-precedented normal of Rhode Island that 1.2% seems like it ought to put a spring in people’s step.