Posted on 06/25/2014 5:47:58 AM PDT by kristinn
The U.S. economy contracted at a much steeper pace than previously estimated in the first quarter, but there are indications that growth has since rebounded strongly.
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday gross domestic product fell at a 2.9 percent annual rate, the economy's worst performance in five years, instead of the 1.0 percent pace it had reported last month.
While the economy's woes have been largely blamed on an unusually cold winter, the magnitude of the revisions suggest other factors at play beyond the weather. Growth has now been revised down by a total of 3.0 percentage points since the government's first estimate was published in April, which had the economy expanding at a 0.1 percent rate.
The difference between the second and third estimates was the largest on records going back to 1976, the Commerce Department said.
Economists had expected growth to be revised to show it contracting at a 1.7 percent rate. Sharp revisions to GDP numbers are not unusual as the government does not have complete data when it makes its initial and preliminary estimates.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
They don’t even print it now, they just enter numbers in the system. As “crazy” Gerald Celente says, “American money is not worth the paper it is NOT printed on.”
It is forever Recovery Summer.
But the crop shall not be bountiful. We reap the whirlwind, the recession is over.
But not in the sense that things are getting better. The recession was over a while back, when it became a full-fledged Great Depression II, that like it or not, has largely engulfed the world.
Oh, some economies are sprinting right along, but as the overall growth throughout the world slows, even the most vigorous and energetic enterprises are inevitably dragged down, as the velocity of money creaks to a halt. Then, even the free minting of bogus and counterfeit currencies will not stave off the total paralysis that spreads to every aspect of life.
Part of the value of money, in any economy, is the velocity at which it moves through the control of people, and how frequently it makes the transition from one user and the next. Simply having a store of some medium of exchange, without either adding to, or taking some away from the pile, makes the medium of exchange just a glittering pile of - pretty things. An ornament. About as much use to the world as a pile of rocks.
But the dynamic of taking part of this pile of - stuff - and exchanging it for something of value, then starts the cash flow, as more and more people participate in the exchange of this medium for other real and useful goods and/or services, the further, and the faster, this exchange proceeds, the faster the pile melts away, but even as it is flowing out, to do its service among the general population, still some if flowing back in, keeping the pump going. The plutocrat still has a large stash of whatever medium of exchange may have been in his possession and control, but because so much of it is out and providing for the movement of goods and services, it shall not be quickly depleted, because of the return on the investment put out there.
But if for whatever reason, the exchange of goods and services is interrupted, the velocity of the money slows or even stops, except that the return flow is a lagging feature, and the cash begins to pile up in the hands of the plutocrat once again. Meanwhile real exchanges out among the many slow to a trickle or stop altogether, and the disparity between the great mass and the ones at the top becomes starkly apparent.
One of the reasons is that the distribution and frankly, the loaning out of money at interest, comes to a crashing halt, because of excessive intrusion in the normal workings of the market, through regulations or extraordinary calamities, like war, or famine, or devastating natural disasters. Removal and repeal of the excessive regulations has the very immediate effect of kick-starting the entire process all over again, and just the natural drive and energy overcomes the damages wreaked by war and natural disasters. Famine, also a factor, is almost always a man-made hazard, compounded by the fact that there may very well be enough and more than enough to go around, but the means of getting the desperately needed goods is thwarted by “authorities” that know so much better than anybody else how the distribution chains should be managed.
If all the “smart” people would just STOP trying to “fix” things, the natural flow of money would resume and the marketplace resumes its highly efficient method of assigning worth and distribution to each as a measure of the relative value or importance of each facet.
The free market works every time it is tried and allowed to proceed at its own pace. It is the artificial and counterproductive “fixes” that ruin any recovery before it is well begun.
Oh, well then, if that’s all we have to do! (sarcasm)
Hey, I agree with everything you said but you know that the Dems and their Media henchmen will demagogue the whole program.
“That can be done with a GOP House, Senate and conservative POTUS”
Yeah, the last set of republican congress and president did a great job promoting conservative values. /s
All the senate and White House could think of was pushing amnesty. Only the House stopped that fiasco.
I noticed a drop in coffee this spring.
The Walmart store brand of Columbian is just under $7 but they reduced the container size down to 28 oz.
At another grocery [my town only has 3, including Walmart], their store brand of Columbian is still 34 oz and the price is just under $7. A couple of years ago that 34 oz can was prices at nearly $15.
[I have been stocking up, even before stories about the fungus hitting coffee crops.]
There are still some grocery bargains, but one has to be diligent. There are fewer bargains, it seems, than there used to be.
I hadn’t seen that. It’s huge, isn’t it?
But with so much else decreasing, combined with that and those increased taxes they’re bragging about, it makes it even worse.
What’s your prediction for this just-finished quarter?
That’s a huge decline.......................
Even greater than huge because with out the Baaken and Eagle Ford oil play, the entire ecconomy would have colapsed.
How in the world could that 2nd revision and Final revision be off so much for 4th quarter Healthcare?”
It can’t, Odunga Admin. manipulation to put off the bad news as far as possible from the Odungacare launch date.
I know, as everyone does, the economy doesn’t like this administration. But, it doesn’t have long to continue it’s destruction so I’ll hold on for now, thank you.
I don’t know man. The effort to impoverish us all is well under way, intentional, and unchecked. Those things will help the economy, which means they won’t happen.
Get this. I saw a news story about a Chinese manufacturer that is relocating their plant from China to Alabama.
China creating jobs in America.
Trader Joe’s has some good coffee that’s not too expensive.
I used to get my coffee from George Howell. It was very expensive but to me it was worth it. They ship it the day they roast it and their La Minita was to die for. Because of the fungus they dropped La Minita so in desperation I tried Trader Joe’s Hawaiian coffee, their Kauai. It’s quite good and costs a fraction of the Howell coffee. I may not go back to the expensive beans.
This is simply more book-cooking by this Administration. If they inflate the decline for Q1, then they can show growth in Q2. The point to this exercise is to make sure there is not a decline for two successive quarters, which defines recession. So they cram all the decline of two quarters into Q1 so that they can report growth in Q2, thus avoiding the Recession label.
Embrace the suck, America.
I haven’t given credibility to any government-issue statistics for quite some time, with even that taking a steep nosedive in 2008. It went from merely massaged to total smoke and mirrors at that point.
That said, the money being pumped into various sectors is quite real to the recipients, so there are effects being felt. Food price inflation should by all rights not be occurring, however one large swathe of government largesse that has increased substantially is EBT, so inflation could and did take root.
I was somewhat surprised to have had my position eliminated on the first day back from the New Year’s holiday. It’s been very odd. I wasn’t sure at the time whether to be upset or relieved, the company had been making some major missteps in my opinion, employees were being dumped into the Obamacare exchange, sales were off. However, I had good contacts and plenty of work lined up for myself. It actually looked promising to go back into business for myself, from the vantage point of then.
It continued to look promising all through January and into February, but then the bottom fell out. It reminded me of other economic scares that I’d experienced, 2008 and 1992. Everything just ground to a halt, projects were cancelled. Nobody really knew what was going on, but the slowdown was palpable for everybody I spoke with about it.
So, I determined that I’d better start focusing upon finding a full-time position with benefits, since the solo gig had begun to look questionable after a very bright beginning. Resume after resume after resume sent out ... nothing. Again, reminded me of 2008, when I had to shut down my business in the first place.
It’s slowly improved to the point that going back into business for myself is looking more than just tenable again, projects have revived, new ones have arisen. I’m starting to get responses to resumes sent out as well, with three companies and one federally funded agency interested, pay ranging from low fifties to low seventies. Given the economy, that’s not too bad, even though I was making easily twice that ten years ago.
The bottom did fall out. Nobody really knows what happened. Obamacare has caused dislocation, and hiring as well as employee retention are completely up in the air because of it. That’s more of a problem than anyone is willing to admit.
But, the weather was hideous. We had a fairly wild winter with ridiculous cold for the upper south, and it was late with the bizarre weather stretching into March. The weather did have some effect, imho.
That’s my observation from the thick of it, for what it’s worth.
2Q14 GDP will be >2%
Yeah just two more years to wait him out... A long to years but it’s almost over. Easily the worst “leader” America has ever had.
The left will always chose wrong because being right is the worst sin in the Moral Relativist religion. The only awakening they can have is spiritual: being made a new creature. In their present state, they can’t be swayed. Once something smacks of truth, they’ll adopt the opposite opinion.
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