You want contrast? I’ve got a doozy for you this morning. Check out these two contrasting developments. First, no surprise, the economy isn’t growing…duh:

The economy grew less than expected from April to June, the government said on Thursday, and it shrank in the final months of 2007, dimming the outlook for a quick recovery.

 

Gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported, primarily because of a surge in export sales powered by the weak dollar. The government’s tax stimulus package pushed consumer spending higher, but the ongoing pain in the housing market took a sharp toll on overall growth.

But that figure was below the estimate of many economists, who had expected growth of 2.3 percent, and it cast doubt on whether the stimulus package would be able to prop up the economy in the months ahead.

   As regular readers know, I’m not a fan of government statistics like the GDP but what I find more interesting here is (a) that really what held up this house of cards was the pathetic little checks people got and (b) that economists have no clue about what really is happening so don’t go trusting their next guess.

    On the other hand, some are raking it in:

Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, reported on Thursday that second-quarter income rose 14 percent, to $11.68 billion, the highest-ever for an American company.

   The oil company immediately announced it was cutting CEO pay, donating half the profits to the U.S. government to help fund the highway trust fund which is running out of money because peiople can’t afford to drive anymore (the trust fund is financed by gas taxes) and turning over the profits in the form of a rebate to all its customers. At the same time, the company announced it had found the Man in the Moon…you get the snark.

   It will get worse.