so...  No recession..

If next quarter has any growth that will mean Bush will leave office with no recession... cool..

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN3043337220080731

GDP gets stimulus checks boost
Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:31am EDT
By Glenn Somerville

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Expansion accelerated modestly in the second quarter as government stimulus payments helped consumers add more buying punch to the economy, a Commerce Department report on Thursday showed.

Gross Domestic Product or GDP grew at a 1.9 percent annual rate, up from a revised 0.9 percent rate in the first quarter that previously was reported as 1 percent.

That followed a 0.2 percent contraction in GDP during the final quarter of 2007 and avoided pushing the economy into back-to-back declines that would have met a popular definition of recession.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected a 2.0 percent rise in GDP in the second quarter.

Separately, the Labor Department reported a sharp jump in the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits -- up 44,000 though officials said some special factors were involved.

Nonetheless, the prospect of rising unemployment was likely to fan new calls for additional stimulus to keep the jobless rolls from swelling in a slowly growing economy.

The Commerce Department said businesses reduced inventories at the sharpest rate since the end of 2001 in a sign they anticipate restrained growth ahead.

A key reading on core inflation -- personal consumption expenditures excluding food and energy -- rose at a 2.1 percent annual rate in the second quarter after gaining 2.3 percent in the first quarter. The moderation in core prices came despite a jump in overall prices to 4.2 percent from 3.6 percent in the first quarter.

U.S. stock futures fell and the dollar's value weakened against other key currencies after the data was issued. Prices for U.S. Treasury debt securities rose.

"At first glance, the 1.9 percent on GDP is OK," said Subodh Kumar, chief investment strategist for Subodh Kumar & Associates in Toronto. "I don't see the risk of the market collapsing because of recession fears."

Consumer spending that fuels two-thirds of U.S. economic activity grew at a 1.5 percent annual rate in the second quarter, up from 0.9 percent in the first quarter and 1 percent in the fourth quarter last year. The department noted that personal incomes had risen more sharply in the second quarter and attributed it primarily to the stimulus payments that the government was issuing to qualifying consumers.

The economy continues to be hobbled by a severe downturn in the housing sector but the drag from it was less severe in the second quarter. Spending on homebuilding contracted at a 15.6 percent annual rate in the second quarter, down from rates of 25.1 percent in the first quarter and 27 percent in last year's fourth quarter.

The department also issued benchmark revisions for the three-year period 2005-2007, which showed growth was weaker in each year than previously thought. GDP grew 2 percent in 2007 instead of 2.2 percent, 2.8 percent instead of 2.9 percent in 2006 and 2.9 percent rather than 3.1 percent in 2005.

The fourth quarter of 2007 was the weakest three months since the third quarter of 2001 amid the last official recession when it shrank at a 1.4 percent rate.

Businesses kept reducing inventories in the second quarter, possibly a sign that they are bracing for a prolonged period of lackluster growth. Stocks of unsold goods declined at a $62.2 billion rate -- the sharpest since an $86.7-billion rate in the fourth quarter of 2001 -- after decreases of $10.2 billion in the first quarter and $8.1 billion in the fourth quarter.

of course not but again.. No recession...

I am warm and fuzzy.  You should be warm and fuzzy, too. 

Without getting into the explicit details of finance, and why the street reacts negatively to this, just understand that the expectations of this quarter were met, and it is time to make some money by wringing the register.   Understand that at the end and beginning of the following week,  there has been some buying in the market.

Its that time of the year to do some stock shopping regardless of a bull or bear market. And do you know what I find?  Bargains everywhere!  Everything for cheap!  Money, money, money make me feel all warm and fuzzy!

Yeah, the press seriously needs to stop saying recession and we all need to as well.  Some stocks got hit so hard that their share price is worth less than the company.  Holy shit!

You have to love irrational people. 

I think we're in a depression.

Why do we need an organization to tell us if we are in a 'recession?' There is no real definition.

So I say we are in a depression.


Why not?

Sir, I don't think you read correctly. Bush is in office so we are going to need to redefine some things, including the meaning of 'recession', because Allen Sinai said so...or at least he said we 'MAY' be in a recession.

He's not sure just yet.

Personally, we are closer to a depression or perhaps a word as of yet not made up ... maybe bushession... which would be 10x worse than a depression.

So the economy isn't bad?  We are just being told it is?     You may really be as dumb as your online persona suggests....

You just are a little too dense to realize the difference between 'You may really be as dumb as your online persona suggests....' and 'you moron.'.  And you forget that you really are nothing more than a pimple on the ass of IAP, one that is well known for posting racist stuff, made up stuff, and unsubstantiated stuff.  Not only would you not be a loss if you were banned, the place would actually be better. 

And yes, you are not very bright if you think 'growing' is all that is needed to have a healthy economy.