Neoavatara

Ouch. But somehow, not so bad… January 30, 2009

The economy shrunk at the fastest rate since the first quarter of 1982, with the GDP DECREASING 3.8% in the fourth quarter of 2008.  This is a significant increase in the pace of the evolving recession, and is foreboding.

But amazingly, this may be good news.  Experts, including the Obama Administration, expected the decrease to be in the 5-7% range.  3.8% is very bad; but not catastrophic.  And remember, in the fourth quarter of 1982, the GDP dropped 6.4%, or almost twice as much as the past quarter.  Also, for the entire year of 2008, the GDP grew by 1.6%.

Politically, this is either good news (if you are the American public, and maybe the recession isn’t as bad as some have thought, though it is really bad) or bad news (less ammunition for the Obama stimulus plan, and more pressure on the President to captain a recovery).

And, as a side note:  I love to hear liberals.  I heard a bunch of morons this morning blast Exxon Mobil for their record 2008 profit of $45.2 Billion.  Just one point:  If more companies ran like Exxon, we wouldn’t be in a recession.