Updated GDP numbers show that the recovery has been even slower than first thought

The Department of Commerce has revised GDP data.  The new data is available here and the older data is available here.  The net change from the adjustment during the recovery is -1.5 percentage points.

From the WSJ:

From the second quarter of 2009, when the recession ended, through 2011, the economy grew a total of 5.8%, a downward revision from a 6.2% gain, the recasting of the past three years’ gross domestic product figures found. Only the brief 4-quarter recovery in 1980 and 1981, when the economy grew a total of 4.4%, was weaker in the past 60 years. . . .

Does one really want to call the 1980 and 1981 recovery a recovery? Don't you really want to compare the same lengths of time?


See this useful discussion of events by Jim Glassman here at Forbes available here.


Here is also an useful figure from Economy Watch.