Economy Shrinks By 6.1% in Q1 2009
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in EconomyThat’s 3 quarters in a row, and that hasn’t happened in nearly 40 years.
Also, the severity of the contraction during the last 2 quarters hasn’t happened for nearly 60 years.
- Real nonresidential fixed investment decreased 37.9% in the first quarter.
- Nonresidential structures decreased 44.2%.
- Equipment and software decreased 33.8%.
- Real residential fixed investment decreased 38%.
The only glimmer of hope? Consumer spending went up 2.2%, when it had decreased by 4.3% in the previous quarter. Still, consumer spending isn’t going to pull us out of this tailspin, but it needs to stay up if we want businesses to start spending and investing again.
More as it develops…
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April 29th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Good thing we’re headed in the right direction. Just imagine what the wrong direction would look like… .
April 29th, 2009 at 9:14 am
KK, I frequently find myself accosted with Mencken’s observation that the common man knows what is good for him and deserves to get it – good and hard. The country may well feel that we are now going in the right direction – that doesn’t mean that we are. Indeed, as Gingrich has pointed out, the change in direction is barely perceptible: the last administration believed in big federal government interventionism, and so does this one. It was the wrong direction then and it’s still the wrong direction now. And to the extent the direction has shifted, it’s shifted for the worse. I suspect that what is really going on is simply that people were sick to death of Bush and are expressing how relieved they are to be rid of him (and, to some extent, their inexplicable but pervasive trust of Obama personally).
April 29th, 2009 at 9:56 am
You’re sending me mixed signals here honey. I thought the government was going to spend for us to drag us out of the hole. Geez, the government is spending trillions upon trillions and now your asking the individual citizens to spend more…
You know, I’ll tell you the same thing I tell the little lady, there’s only 24 hours in a day and all this spending requires someone go to work on occassion.
I just can’t wait for the Feds to take over MasterCard or Visa!