Economy in U.S. Shrank at 6.1% Rate in First Quarter

[brentspeak]

In other words, the economy is NOT "stabilizing", as some people have put it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHyjnZCJkYIU&refer=home

[NYC_SKP]

1. Right, Bush's economy is still tanking. You do realize 8 years of bad takes more than 100 days?

More than 100 days to undo.

Meanwhile, the shit is no longer in freefall. Things are moving in the right direction.

:patriot:

[Baltoman991]

2. Oh come

on, you know this is President Obamas fault right? 100 days is long enough to undo 2920 days of running the country into the ground don't ya think?

:sarcasm:

[NYC_SKP]

10. It's in taters. The economy. Taters.

His fault.

:rofl:

[brentspeak]

3. I don't blame Obama for the freefall

But there's no reason to believe that "things are moving in the right direction"? What are you basing your belief on?

[NYC_SKP]

12. Stock market, housing prices. It's a very subjective opinion, it has to be.

There is no way of knowing what might be different with McCain or Clinton at the Helm, but IMHO this president has taken such atypical moves that I think we are recovering more quickly than we would be with either of the other two.

These "moves" include a willingness to approach things less politically, ie energy. Clinton would have been "tender" about offshore development of renewables and McCain would have drilled drilled drilled.

Obama is willing to step out of what traditional DLCers would do and certainly doesn't toe the conservative approaches.

He is like a Third Option to the two "old ways" of solving problems.

:patriot:

[brentspeak]

13. ?

[NYC_SKP]

16. Courage. It's about courage.

I saw Barbara Boxer speak two weeks ago with other senators, a governor, our secty of energy.

I love Barbara Boxer.

Ken Salazar asked a simple question: "Would you support development of renewable energy off shore on the outer continental shelf?"

Do you think he got a straight fucking answer?

That's the old way.

Obama would have given a straight answer and would have gotten the job done.

He's getting the job done now because he has the courage to piss a few people off in the interest of getting shit done.

[brentspeak]

17. ?

[NYC_SKP]

20. Sparkly things. It's about sparkly things. And trails.

Many of us see the trails, but not very many people see the sparkly things.

:P

[MUAD_DIB]

4. It's going to be a painful future for some time.

[Clio the Leo]

5. Romer said this was on par with what they expected ....

... and the real "stabilization" would come when GDP went up 2% or more. They never expected that to happen until the second quarter.

[On the Road]

6. Wow -- 6.1%

on the heels of 4Q. That is scary.

But the 4Q ended almost a month ago. If you are in the stores and on the street, it's obvious that we are no longer in freefall. As of right now, the economy has stabilized and April numbers are going to come in a lot better.

[brentspeak]

14. I was in some stores yesterday

There were more employees than customers.

[Aloha Spirit]

21. Well, the article said consumer spending grew by more than 2%

[msallied]

7. I think I read recently we were expected to hit bottom by the summer

and start recovering little by little after that. I see some little signs of hope locally, at least in terms of the housing market. In March, our country recorded over 200 house sales for the first time since October. Of course, our state budget is still a mess, and I think we're probably going to lose even more jobs before things start to get better. I'd probably give this thing another two years before we can finally say we're getting some traction on moving upward.

Interestingly, I read our trade deficit is at a record low. Of course it's because we're not trading nearly as much right now. Sigh. It's a rough road.

[Beacool]

8. Here's an article from the WP on that subject.

A Reality Check for Economic Optimism
'Improvement' Merely Means the Decline Is Slowing


Job applicants wait to get into a job fair in South Carolina. Nationwide, the jobless rate stands at 8.5 percent.

Seemingly everyone from President Obama to top Federal Reserve officials to cable TV talking heads has been talking lately about signs that the economy could be stabilizing.

Yet companies are laying off employees at a record pace, the financial markets remain a mess, and this morning the government is widely expected to announce that the economy shrunk at an extraordinary pace in the first three months of the year. (Economists have estimated that gross domestic product fell at a 5 percent annual rate.)

The reason for the seeming disconnect has to do with the various benchmarks by which the economy can be measured. There's the level at which it is functioning -- how many people have jobs and how much the nation produces. There's the direction it is going -- whether those numbers are growing or shrinking. And there is the speed with which it is changing.

The improvement that Obama and economists inside and outside of government are talking about is, so far, limited to the third category. The economy still appears to be in decline, but it seems to be declining slower than it was at the end of last year and beginning of 2009.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/28/AR2009042803457.html

[NYC_SKP]

15. That's right. Lower rate of decline is an indicator of improvement.

And movement toward stabilization and recovery.

This is good news.

Woof!

[Beacool]

18. Yes, it is.

But it's still a very bumpy ride and people are continuing to lose their jobs at an alarming rate.

:(

Hi, Pooch!!!

:hi:

[NYC_SKP]

19. The part I like:

People are re-thinking their priorities, taking "staycations", buying less crap, staying at home and dining in with the family, thinking differently about all the shit they buy.

We are long overdue to a return to more sensible lifestyles.

The past economic booms were unsustainable, based on overconsumption.

:hi:

[Uzybone]

9. Wow...we are still in recession...who would thunk it

I thought Obama would have fixed the economy by now.

[Kokonoe]

11. This just Proves the U.S. is not viable to have an auto industry.

Fire the workers, Sell the pieces and scoop away the pension funds.
Its the fiscally responsible thing to do. sarcasm

[uponit7771]

22. That's not good at all, more drop = capitalize middle class IMHO

[AtomicKitten]

23. consumer spending is up and Wall Street likee today