Anymore questions about the pre-recession economic situation?
This article should put to bed the notion that the economy didn’t start it’s downward spiral until W was elected:
The U.S. economy shrank in the third quarter of 2000, the government said on Wednesday in revisions to official figures that showed America was on the brink of recession months earlier than previously thought.
The sweeping changes by the Commerce Department (news – web sites) also downgraded the expansion that followed the 2001 slump, albeit only slightly.
However, the revisions were not applied to third-quarter 2003 data — leaving the most recent measure of growth unchanged at a swift annual clip of 8.2 percent. The next reading of third-quarter growth is scheduled for later in December.
Until now, statisticians at Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis believed the economy did not start shrinking until early 2001. But extensive revisions dating back to 1929, incorporating both improved statistics and changes to definitions, revealed a contraction in gross domestic product, or GDP, in the July-to-September quarter of 2000. Instead of inching ahead at the first reported 0.6 percent annual rate in that quarter, GDP shrank 0.5 percent, Commerce said. The weaker estimate is mostly due to a larger drop in private inventories than previously reported.*snip*
We’ve recovered from the recession which was taking root in 2000. Anymore questions?