The evidence is beginning to pile that this “recovery” has no clothes – BEA reports:
Included in the BEA’s first (“Advance”) estimate of second quarter 2011 GDP were significant downward revisions to previously published data, some of it dating back to 2003. Astonishingly, the BEA even substantially cut their annualized GDP growth rate for the quarter that they “finalized” just 35 days ago — from an already disappointing 1.92% to only 0.36%, lopping over 81% off of the month-old published growth rate before the ink had completely dried on the “final” in their headline number. And as bad as the reduced 0.36% total annualized GDP growth was, the “Real Final Sales of Domestic Product” for the first quarter of 2011 was even lower, at a microscopic 0.04%.
Hat tip Dr. Evil for sending this along.
I would add that because CPI is understated in the US by a non-trivial amount, we are probably back in recession at this moment. Whenever GDP growth clocks in under 2%, I wonder what it’d be if CPI were calculated in somewhat honest fashion.
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