GDP

Thinking aloud about yesterday's GDP report

I was a little surprised at the total lack of coverage of the GDP report yesterday on the political blogs (the econ blogs had a few things to say). I suspect it was because most people expected GDP to be significantly negative (I sure did) and yet here was this positive number.
Some people will just say the numbers are cooked, but as I keep pointing out, as long as the bias is regular (like a clock that is always 10 minutes slow) the data gives a lot of information.

So, a few thoughts.

An Economy Fueled, Funded and Fed by Debt

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Debt, debt, an economy fueled, funded and fed by debt. That's what many economists and economics bloggers are reporting via real bona fide facts.

Via the Manufacturing and Technology Newsletter, Dr. Charles W. McMillion reports:

In just the past seven years, U.S. household debt almost doubled and federal debt soared by near two-thirds, rocketing by a combined $10.5 trillion. The total combined debt of households ($14.4 trillion) and the federal government ($9.2 trillion) is now 168 percent of GDP, far higher even than in the brief spike during World War II

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