Q4 GDP Growth Revised from 2.8% to 3.1%

The Commerce Department reported that, in the third and final estimate for the fourth quarter of 2010, the U.S. economy grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.1 percent, up from the prior estimate of 2.8 percent.The upward revision was due mostly to higher business investment and a smaller inventory build.

source

GDP Growth Rates

On an annual basis, real GDP grew by 2.9% in 2010, the highest annual gain since a 3.05% increase in 2005, according to today's BEA report. In dollars, real GDP in 2010 was $13.248 trillion, which set a new annual record for U.S. output, surpassing the $13.228 trillion levels in 2007 and 2008.

source

Corporate Profits

source

Real Gross Domestic Income Still Below Pre-Recession Peak

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), real GDP is now slightly above the pre-recession peak. Real GDP (in 2005 dollars) was at $13,380.7 billion in Q4, just 0.13% above the $13,363.5 billion in Q4 2007.However real Gross Domestic Income (GDI) is still 0.25% below the pre-recession peak.

source

Q4 Real GDP Growth revised up to 3.1%

source

Spending is the Problem

source

The Rich--A Changing Group

Robert Frank writes:

Researchers and journalists (myself included) often refer to the rich as a
fixed group. There are the “the rich” who keep getting richer, with ever-rising
shares of the nation’s income and wealth. And then there are “the rest,” who
aren’t getting much of either.

At a time when the American Dream is supposedly dead for most Americans,
while Wall Streeters seen as permanently ensconced in government-backed
luxury, the chances of moving up or down would appear slim.

But the rich and poor may be far more fluid than the conventional
wisdom would have us believe. What is most surprising is the churn at the top of
the income ladder.

A Census Bureau study shows that from 2004 to 2007, about a
third of the households in the highest income quintile (the top 20%) moved down to another income group. In the same period, a third of those in the lowest income group moved to a higher group.

This isn’t to say Horatio Alger is the norm, and America ranks below
many other developed countries when it comes to intergenerational mobility, or
the chances of rising higher than your folks did. And wealth mobility, which
measures accumulated assets over a lifetime, is more persistent than income
mobility. The period of 2004 to 2007 also is selective, since the country was
prospering from the real-estate bubble...

“One of the most enduring economic myths in our society is that the
rich keep getting richer, while the poor keep getting poorer,” he writes. “It isn’t true.”

source

Housing Market

source

US Wireless Provider Market Share

source

Inflation

source

FoxNews or a Politician?

Paul v Obama Budget Proposals

While Obama intends to continue spending at a historically high level, Paul would reduce spending as a share of the economy. Paul takes the scalpel to all areas of federal spending, including discretionary, defense, and mandatory. However, it is not a radical plan. In fact, it’s a practical, common sense budget that recognizes that the federal government’s growth has become unsustainable, and thus a threat to our economic well-being and future living standards.

source

Paul's Budget Proposal

Funding the Debt

source

Poverty Rate

source

Coicident Economic Indicator

The Coincident Economic Activity Index includes four indicators: nonfarm payroll employment, the unemployment rate, average hours worked in manufacturing and wages and salaries.

source

Producer Price Index

source

The Deficit

Leading Economic Indicators

source

Jimmy the 2nd

I think it all adds up to a pretty bearish scenario because of all the inflation implications of what we’re seeing right now. You already had massive deficits and money printing in the developed world. On top of that you had enormous demand-side pressure from China relative to commodities. And now you’ve got the prospect of massive geopolitical disturbance in the great oil-producing centers of the world. I mean, that has to be a pretty inflationary scenario. The best case is that we’re about to re-run the 1970s, only with Barack Obama instead of Jimmy Carter in the White House.

Niall Ferguson

Greenspan v Bernanke

source