The economic news has been bad, but with the newly released Bureau of Economic Analysis release from the U.S. Department of Commerce, we see the original estimates were actually good compared to the reality.
Via Business Insider:
The third reading on Q2 GDP just came out and the report was ugly.
The headline growth number was revised down to 1.3 percent on an annualized basis.
Economists expected the number to be unchanged at 1.7 percent.
"As we recently noted, you'll need to watch the rear-view mirror to see the recession come into focus," wrote ECRI's Lakshman Achuthan in an email to Business Insider.
"The "third" estimate of the second-quarter percent change in real GDP is 0.4 percentage point, or $16.0 billion, less than the "second" estimate issued last month, primarily reflecting downward revisions to private inventory investment, to personal consumption expenditures, and to exports," wrote the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The personal consumption component was revised down to 1.5 percent. Economists were expecting it to be unchanged at 1.7 percent.
This comes directly on the heels of the bad news from yesterday that median income has fallen 8.2 percent since Obama took office and 5.7 percent since the official so-called recovery started.
[Update] Via Hot Air: A key measure of the economy, especially in manufacturing, just had the bottom fall out. Orders for durable goods dropped 13.2% in August, the worst decrease in almost four years, and a large signal that the American economy is diving into a recession.
I will repeat what I said yesterday : By every standard conceivable, America and Americans are not better off than they were four years ago and yet Obama proposes more of the same.