And at 5:00 on a Friday, too…

But don’t worry! The business stenographers are still optimistic!

The economy has slowed to a snail’s pace, growing in the just-finished quarter at the slowest rate in more than three years and stirring fresh debate about the country’s financial health heading into the elections.

So much for the Bush recovery, which was never all that great to begin with. I never saw a dime from it. Did you? Say, how’s your mortgage?

The Commerce Department reported Friday that economic growth during the July-to-September period clocked in at an annual rate of just 1.6 percent — a subpar performance that mostly reflected the deepening housing slump. Investment in homebuilding was cut by the largest amount in 15 years.

That “packed a wicked punch for the U.S. economy … but it was not a knockout blow,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.