Commentary Many it seems—the White House but also much of the media and Wall Street—took heart from the Commerce Department’s fourth quarter report on the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). It seemed to confirm that after the Omicron-burdened summer quarter, the economy had returned to the powerful and broad-based recovery tracked during the year’s first half. But that interpretation is misplaced. One did not have to look too far beyond what is usually called the “headline figure” to find considerable cause for concern. That “headline”—overall real GDP growth—did indeed look good. It ticked up smartly from the 2.3 percent annual growth rate recorded for the third quarter and even exceeded the impressive overall real growth of 6.5 percent averaged earlier in the year. The problem is that the bulk of this surge had nothing to do with sales to consumers or businesses, or homebuyers, or even governments. It was largely …