Filtering Through the Economic Noise, America's Second Great Depression
Economics / Great Depression II Sep 10, 2010 - 05:06 AM
By: Mike_Stathis

Early last month, the Commerce Department released the latest GDP data. For Q2 of 2010 the GDP growth came in at 2.4%, missing the consensus estimate of 2.5%.

The Commerce Department also released its latest revisions to 2007-2009 GDP data. As I had predicted, the economy shrank more than the previous estimate of 2.6% versus the 2.4% data recorded last year. That made it the largest drop in GDP since 1946.

Moreover, the revisions in August indicated 0% economic growth for all of 2008 versus the previous estimate of 0.4%.

Finally, in 2007 the economy grew by only 1.9% versus the previous 2.1% figure. Overall, since the recession began in December 2007 through June of 2010, GDP has declined by 4.1% according to the latest revisions by the Commerce Department.

Fast-forward to a month later. On August 27, the Commerce Department revised the Q2 2010 GDP data downward. From April to June (Q2) the GDP was revised down to 1.6%, from the initial 2.4% estimate. This latest data has strengthened the growing consensus that the “recoveryâ€