Ruh roh.

The economy showed signs it was decelerating, with an index of service activity pointing to slower growth in November while new orders for factory goods declined in October for the second straight month.

The Institute for Supply Management said on Monday its services index fell to 52.0 last month from 52.9 the month before. The reading was below economists’ forecasts for 53.5, according to a Reuters survey.

This comes after the unemployment rate fell to 8.6%, largely because large numbers of American workers simply gave up trying to find employment. Their dropping out of the workforce lowers the unemployment rate but leads to lower household spending power. It has been said that unemployment would be at 11% if everyone looking for work in 2009 was still looking today.

Back on November 22nd, the federal government announced third-quarter GDP growth — originally pegged at 2.5% — was really just 2%. Compare that with 3.5% growth in Canada, 3.6% growth in Germany, and a whopping rate of 9-10% growth in China. We’re trailing countries that suffered the same recession we did. Possibly because they changed course whereas we’re pursuing the same failed policies.