Debt and GDP

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2011 4th Quarter GDP: 3.0%

The Commerce Department reported that higher levels of spending by consumers and businesses resulted in an upward revision to U.S. economic growth during the fourth quarter of 2011, the annualized rate of 2.8 percent that was reported a month ago revised up to 3.0 percent in the second of three estimates for the period.

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GDP 3rd Quarter 2011: 2.5%

2nd Quarter GDP: Revised Up to 1.3%

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2nd Quarter GDP: 1.0%

The dashed line is the current growth rate. Growth in Q2 at 1.0% annualized was below trend growth (around 3%) - and very weak for a recovery, especially with all the slack in the system.

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Slow Growth Continues

Economic growth in the second quarter was slightly weaker than previously estimated, according to revised U.S. government data released Friday.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic health, rose at an annual rate of 1% in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said.

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GDP Revisions

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GDP 2nd Quarter 2011: 1.3%

In the “advance” estimate for the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported that real economic growth in the U.S. increased at an annual rate of 1.3 percent, far below consensus estimates of a two percent rate, and, as part of the annual data revisions, growth in the first quarter was revised downward, from a 1.8 percent rate to just 0.4 percent.

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GDP Revisions: Recession Worse than Originally Believed

GDP: Not only has growth slowed, but the recession was significantly worse than earlier estimates suggested. Real GDP is still not back to the pre-recession peak.

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2nd Quarter GDP Estimates

This graph shows the quarterly GDP growth (at an annual rate) for the last 30 years.

The consensus is that real GDP increased 1.8% annualized in Q2. The estimate for Q2 is in blue.

Back-to-back weak quarters and a sluggish and choppy recovery ...

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Real Personal Income and GDP

real personal income less transfer payments is still 3.4% below the previous peak.

It appears that GDP bottomed in Q2 2009 and GDI in Q3 2009. Real GDP finally reached the pre-recession peak in Q4 2010, but real GDI is still slightly below the previous peak.

Using GDI, the economy will be back to the pre-recession peak in Q2 2011.

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2011 1st Quarter GDP: 1.8%

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World GDP per Capita

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Real GDP Now Above Pre-Recession Level

"U.S. economic output finally regained the level reached before the recession, as growth sped up on stronger consumer spending and exports (see chart above).

Gross domestic product—a broad measure of all goods and services produced—grew at a 3.2% annual rate in the fourth quarter. That's up from the 2.6% pace notched the quarter before and confirms the view held by many economists and stock-market investors that the economy is gaining enough momentum to start bringing down unemployment in the months ahead.

The expansion in large part was fueled by a jump in consumer spending—a crucial change from earlier in the recovery, when growth relied heavily on businesses investing and building up inventories. Final sales—a measure that gives a feeling for underlying demand in the economy by subtracting the change in business inventories from GDP—notched its biggest increase since 1984, growing 7.1% in the fourth quarter. This reviving demand bodes well for 2011, because businesses could take it as a signal to stock their shelves and hire workers."

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GDP 3rd Quarter 2010: 2.0%

This graph shows the quarterly GDP growth (at an annual rate) for the last 30 years. The dashed line is the median growth rate of 3.05%. The current recovery is very weak - the 2nd half slowdown continues.

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Cartoon: GDP

Real GDP per Capita

The National Bureau of Economic Research has documented 33 recessions since 1857, including a few major ones that are easily identifiable in the chart above: a) three severe contractions in the 1865-1880 period following the Civil War (with the third one lasting more than five years) and accompanied by a 20-year period of below-average economic growth, and b) the Great Depression with two official recessions (August 1929 to August 1933; and May 1937 to June 1938) and a ten-year period of below trend growth in output.

Despite the vagaries of the business cycle, unexpected periods of recessions, a civil war, two world wars, a Great Depression, etc., there's one thing we can always count on in the long-run: 2% real growth in per-capita GDP, meaning that that output per person in the U.S. doubles every 35 years, or about twice during the average person's lifetime.

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GDP 2nd Quarter 2010: 1.6%

The new figure was better than analysts’ expectations for a 1.4 percent rate, lower net exports and a smaller inventory gain being the major factors in the downward revision. The surge in imports subtracted a full 3.4 percentage points from economic growth, the biggest impact by the trade deficit in 63 years.

Consumer spending was revised upward, from a previously reported rate of 1.6 percent to 2 percent to offset other downward revisions, and business spending continued to be the major factor in the overall gain, increasing almost 25 percent from the first quarter.

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China's Economy: #2 GDP or #99 GDP per capita

According to a Bloomberg story today, "China surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy last quarter, capping the nation’s three- decade rise from Communist isolation to emerging superpower. The country of 1.3 billion people will overtake the U.S., where annual GDP is about $14 trillion, as the world’s largest economy by 2027."

Adjusting for GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) on a per-capita basis, China (at $6,567) has a long way to go before it achieves "superpower" status, considering that it ranks #102 according to the CIA, #99 according to the IMF, and #92 according to the World Bank. In fact, on a per-capita basis in 2009, China ranked behind Namibia, Jamaica, Belize, Thailand, El Salvador, and Albania. And the last time the U.S. had per-capita GDP of $6,567 was back in 1932.

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GDP of the World

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