Will winter storms derail the economic recovery?

This winter is on track to be the coldest in decades. Could higher heating bills and reduced shopping hurt economic growth? 

The massive Midwest snowstorm drove Chicago's Lake Shore Drive to a standstill.
(Image credit: Getty)

Retailers, airlines, automakers, and businesses of all stripes are reeling from the massive storm battering much of the U.S., and financial analysts are already predicting the unusually harsh winter will lower economic growth this quarter. The fears were alleviated a bit by news that major retailers had a better-than-expected January, with shoppers apparently shrugging off the snow. But as this week's storms show, the winter isn't over. Will the freezing storms kill the economic green shoots?

The economy is going to feel this: Forecasters say "this winter is going to be brutal — perhaps the worst in a century," says Ash Bennington in CNBC. That means higher bills for already struggling households, less traffic for still-recovering retailers, and maybe even an impact on crops and food prices. "Consistently terrible weather, of course, is bad for the economy," and AccuWeather predicts years more of these colder-than-normal winters.

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