A Quick Tour of the Reality of the Situation (Five Key Data Points That Can’t Be Ignored)
Mac Slavo
October 11th, 2011
SHTFplan.com
Living within the realm of a 24 hour news cycle can often make it seem like things really are getting better. On any given day a particular company may report better than expected earnings, the Dow Jones may rise 250 points, and a few thousands more workers than expected were hired into private sector jobs. As a result, we receive a string of positive assessments on the economy, despite the fact that just one day prior we may have had central bankers and IMF advisors suggesting a depressionary collapse was all but inevitable.
To keep things in perspective we present several data points which we consider to be quite important to the overall health of the economy. Data and statistics that provide a longer-term view, as opposed to a daily or weekly micro snapshot, and let you decide how well the economy is doing and whether we “dodged a recession,” as one economist recently suggested.
1. ECONOMIC GROWTH (GDP)
While mainstream economic consensus indicates the economy is growing at a sluggish pace of anywhere from 1% to 2.5%, the real data suggests otherwise. When we look at the data and consider all of the factors involved, we end up with the real Gross Domestic Product as defined and calculated by John Williams of Shadowstats.com, which indicates a NEGATIVE growth rate f
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