The Commerce Department released some bad numbers today. The department's estimated GDP showed the US economy contracted at a rate of 6.1% in the first quarter of 2009. It was the third straight quarter in which GDP went down--the first time that has happened since 1975. While the data showed a decline was not the least bit surprising, the rate was. The Wall Street Journal reports that economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had predicted a 4.6% drop. And yet, as the Wall Street Journal 's Phil Izzo and Kelly Evans point out, it is possible to find silver linings in the Commerce Department's report. Christine Romer , chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, also makes a case that there are some good signs in the data. Here's what she told Reuters : "There's perhaps a little bit of a silver lining," Christina Romer, the head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told Reuters Financial Television in reaction to news the U.S. economy contracted at a 6.1 percent annual rate in the first quarter. "To the degree that that's a sign that firms are bringing down some of their inventories ... that combined with consumers coming back to life could mean we need to start to producing things again," she said. "It could put us in a position for perhaps a less dreary number going forward." Read the Wall Street Journal report on the GDP numbers here . And David Wessel's 12 Reasons to be (Economically) Optimistic here .