The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported today that U.S. real GDP fell at a 0.3% annual rate in the third quarter of 2008. That’s the second quarter of negative real GDP growth out of the last four, and puts the cumulative annual growth since 2007:Q3 at an anemic 0.8%.
Author Archives: James_Hamilton
Deflation risk
There are plenty of things to worry about in the current economic situation. But deflation isn’t one of them.
Further rate cuts needed
The Fed will probably vote for another 50-basis-point cut in the fed funds rate this week, bringing its target down to 1%. Here’s why I think that would be a good idea.
The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet
On Thursday, the Federal Reserve issued its weekly H.4.1 report, which provides details of the Fed’s balance sheet. Once upon a time, this was one of the least interesting of the government’s many releases of data. These days, it’s become one of the most exciting.
Brief questions and answers on the fiscal stimulus
No time to post much today, so I’ll just pass along an interesting question and brief answer from the Econbrowser mail room.
Bailouts for commodity speculators
If automakers are lining up at the trough, why not Big Agra?
More unhappy numbers
Updates on some of the series we regularly follow, and they’re not good.
Balancing California’s Energy Needs with its Environmental Goals
That was the topic of a talk by Stanford Professor Frank Wolak at the UCSD Economics Roundtable on Tuesday.
Some encouraging developments
Plenty of gloom out there if you’re hungry for more. But I wanted to pass along a couple of developments this week that give me some hope.
The global recession
IMF research economist
Prakash Loungani reports some statistics on the extent to which housing price declines are being seen worldwide.