[AlexdeLarge]

Economy grows at 5.7 pct pace, fastest since 2003
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Economy-likely-grew-faster-in-apf-3028347842.html?x=0&.v=9

The 5.7 percent annual growth rate in the fourth quarter was the fastest pace since 2003. The Commerce Department report Friday is the strongest evidence to date that the worst recession since the 1930s ended last year, though an academic panel that dates recessions has yet to declare an end to it.

Thats right folks. Get out there and buy some stocks, buy a new car or a house! Obama and the Golden Boys have saved the world!!!

Note: This is not a pump & dump. There is no way these wizards of wall street would lie to you again. I'm sure they would not sucker you into the market.........then sale all their positions.

[AlexdeLarge]

Ticker

GDP: There's Your Inventory Bounce
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1915-GDP-Theres-Your-Inventory-Bounce.html

[Ludi]

If productivity is up so much when so many folks are unemployed, that means those working are working MUCH too hard.

[Novus]

If productivity is up so much when so many folks are unemployed, that means those working are working MUCH too hard.

Employers are learning how to use the hard times to squeeze the workers more and are thus not hiring. This NOT productivity.

[Ludi]

Employers are learning how to use the hard times to squeeze the workers more and are thus not hiring. This NOT productivity.

I agree - it's an opportunity for employers to depress wages and working conditions, because there is an excess labor force.

[gnm]

Ludi, Novus.... 'Xactly........ Around here they call it "expanding mission scope".

-G

[AlexdeLarge]

Employers are learning how to use the hard times to squeeze the workers more and are thus not hiring. This NOT productivity.

I agree - it's an opportunity for employers to depress wages and working conditions, because there is an excess labor force.

We are in a credit contraction causing deflation throughout the economy. Wages are deflated along with everything else. Economics 101 ...Supply and Demand.

3 1/2 % of growth is related to the sugar high of all the stimulous spending by the goobermint, Most of the rest is Inventory rebuild.

Businesses do not exist to provide you a job. Businesses exist to provide profits for the shareholders/Owners. Only in Barry's Socialist paradise are these fundamentals ignored............

[Revi]

I read Denninger's piece and I agree with Alex de Large, for once.

It was just stimulus that caused the 5.7% jump in GDP. It wasn't the Christmas sales season.

I think they will re-adjust the numbers to around 3% soon.

Even 3% seems incredible.

[Daniel_Plainview]

3 1/2 % of growth is related to the sugar high of all the stimulous spending by the goobermint, Most of the rest is Inventory rebuild.

Obama, Pelosi & Barney Frank have saved us.

Oh joy.

Oh joy.

Let Ben's printing presses continue to roll, and let Obama's pork-fed deficits continue to soar.

We are saved.

We are saved.

[crude_intentions]

Ticker

GDP: There's Your Inventory Bounce
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1915-GDP-Theres-Your-Inventory-Bounce.html

The market liked it (although the net change after thinking about it for a while was pretty much a non-event - we're up a whole two S&P points a half-hour after release) but most of the improvement was due to inventory build and transfer payments from the government (and the government borrowed the money), not actual earned personal income.

Denninger hits the nail on the head.

I guess were expected to rejoice at a little economic improvement yet ignore the massive goverment (Debt) spending that produced it.

Reminds me of the argument i've been having with my cousin about buying vs renting a home. His whole thing is "You'll get a $9,000 dollar tax credit!" Thats right Nine grand for putting yourself in the hole $100,000 plus interest.

It like a Yakov Smirnoff Joke

"In Soviet America, Borrowed Money make YOU Rich!

[AlexdeLarge]

"The GDP number today represented not just a rare but an unprecedented event, and as such, we are willing to treat the report with an entire saltshaker — a few grains won’t do."

David Rosenberg

[Gerben]

The 5.7 percent annual growth rate in the fourth quarter was the fastest pace since 2003.

This would be shocking if it were true. It's 5.7% annualized growth. That's 1.4% in one quarter. 5.7% annual would mean 5.7% YoY. Still 1.4% QtQ is a lot more than I expected.

[copious.abundance]

The 5.7 percent annual growth rate in the fourth quarter was the fastest pace since 2003.

This would be shocking if it were true. It's 5.7% annualized growth. That's 1.4% in one quarter. 5.7% annual would mean 5.7% YoY. Still 1.4% QtQ is a lot more than I expected.

But it IS the fastest pace since 2003. GDP in 2003 was also reported on an annualized basis.

[dorlomin]

"In Soviet America, Borrowed Money make YOU Rich!

That is actualy quite funny.

[kmann]

Government spending was down 0.2 % for the quarter. This growth was not led by stimulus dollars.

[AirlinePilot]

From an economic analyst....

"In the fourth quarter, aggregate private hours worked contracted at a 0.5% annual rate and what we can tell you is that such a decline in labour input has never before, scanning over 50 years of data, coincided with a GDP headline this good. Normally, GDP growth is 1.7% when hours worked is this weak, and that is exactly the trend that was depicted this week in the release of the Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index, which was widely ignored. On the flip side, when we have in the past seen GDP growth come in at or near a 5.7% annual rate, what is typical is that hours worked grows at a 3.7% rate"

[Niagara]

The GDP figure is an incredibly useful piece of information.

I just sold my buddy a beer mug for $10,000,000,000. Then I bought it back for $10,000,000,000

Between us we just added 20 bill. to the GDP. You're welcome.

[alpha480v]

Government spending was down 0.2 % for the quarter. This growth was not led by stimulus dollars.

I don't buy it. I work for the Federal government(Dept. Of Veterans Affairs) and my facility alone has 10 million dollars in Stimulus projects going on right now, or soon to start.

[Plantagenet]

Government spending was down 0.2 % for the quarter. This growth was not led by stimulus dollars.

I don't buy it. I work for the Federal government(Dept. Of Veterans Affairs) and my facility alone has 10 million dollars in Stimulus projects going on right now, or soon to start.

Agreed. My university is stuffed full of stimulus projects dropped on us from various federal agencies---I've got two new projects myself.

The stimulus bucks are hitting the street.

[AlexdeLarge]

GDP Mirage - The Last Hurrah
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/01/gdp-mirage-last-hurrah.html

Digging beneath the surface there is nothing to cheer about in the GDP numbers. Moreover, this weakness is in the face of the largest stimulus measures the world has ever seen, not just in the US, but globally. Money supply in China is growing at 30% and housing bubbles are likely to pop in Australia, Canada, and the UK. Problems in Greece, Spain, and Iceland continue to mount.

GDP is a mirage of sand blowing in the wind. So is global growth. It is a mistake to believe government spending can possibly provide a solid foundation for a lasting recovery.