Our Worrisome GDP

The sad GDP numbers came out today, with a 1.4% drop from last quarter (on an annual basis). I don’t like that way of reporting things, because it gives you a meaningless snapshot of the GDP. I prefer looking at this:

[This is a screencap of the inflation-adjusted GDP from the Saint Louis Fed]

You can see the steady growth since the last recession, with an uptick in growth when Trump was elected. Then came COVID-19, with the economy rebounding after Q2 2020. But the rebound slows down quite a bit after Q2 2021. Must be Russia.

Obviously next quarter will be critical – if the GDP shrinks again, there will be grounds for saying our economy’s in recession.