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  • Real GDP Rose 2.8 Percent in 4th Quarter; 1.7 Percent for 2011

    Real GDP increased 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a new report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis . For the year, real GDP rose 1.7 percent. From the report: The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter reflected positive contributions from private inventory investment, personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, residential fixed investment, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from federal government spending and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased. The acceleration in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected an upturn in private inventory investment and accelerations in PCE and in residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a deceleration in nonresidential fixed investment, a downturn in federal government spending, an acceleration in imports, and a larger decrease in state and local government spending. Here is a look at the ups and downs of real GDP over the last 4 years: Real GDP increased 3.0 percent in 2010. The BEA report lists drops in inventory investment and government spending--"the annual decline was the largest decline since 1971"--as primary reasons for the slowdown. Read the full release from the BEA here .

  • Goolsbee on Slow Growth in First Quarter of 2011

    Austan Goolsbee , chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers , was Hans Nichols 's guest on Bloomberg Television 's Bottom Line . He addressed the Commerce Department 's report showing that the US economy grew at a rate of 1.8 percent in the first quarter of 2011 (down from 3.1% growth in the fourth quarter of 2010): Note: We took the embedded video off this page, but you can watch the interview here .

  • Trade Gap Climbs in November on Increased Demand for Imports

    Total U.S. imports beat out exports to a tune of $174.6 billion to $138.2 in November, according to figures released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis . The $36.4 billion trade gap was up from $33.2 billion (revised) in October. That's the highest monthly gap since last January. Here's the two-year trend from the BEA: Read the full report here .

  • Average Annual Compensation, by US County

    The Bureau of Economic Analysis has released a new report on compensation by county. The figures are for 2008, and they show that American jobs paid, on average, $56,116 that year. That was up 2.6%. 80% of counties across the US saw average compensation per job rise. Total compensation was up 2.3%, and was outpaced by inflation, which rose 3.3%. The real value in this report is the county-by-county breakdown. Small counties--those with less than $1 billion in total compensation--saw a 3.1% rise in total compensation. Average annual compensation per job rose 3.7%. Of the 2,265 counties designated "small" by the BEA, Eureka County, NV has the highest average annual compensation at $91,585, and Petroleum County, MT has the lowest at $27, 285. 72.8% of all US counties fit the "small county" designation, and together they represent 8.3 % of total national compensation. Large counties, on the other hand, represent 5.4% of the total counties in the US, and 65.9% of total compensation. Among these counties, New York County (Manhattan) had the highest average annual compensation (and highest in the nation)--$117,509. El Paso County, TX, had an average annual compensation of $42,730. Read more from the Bureau of Economic Analysis here .

  • Bad GDP Numbers, But Many See Good Signs

    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 .

  • Retail Sales Drop in March; Producer Prices Drop As Well

    The Commerce Department released disappointing retail sales figures today showing that sales dropped 1.1% in March after a 0.3% gain in February. According to Bloomberg , auto sales led the way (down), but almost every sector saw decreased sales: Autos sold at an average 9.5 million annual rate in the first quarter, the weakest performance since 1982. General Motors Corp., the largest U.S. carmaker, may be forced to file for bankruptcy in the event it can’t reach accords with labor and bondholders for $13.4 billion in federal aid. In addition to electronics stores and restaurants, sellers of furniture, building materials, clothing, and sporting goods all posted declines. The 1.4 percent decrease in receipts at restaurants and bars was the biggest since March 2005. Only grocery and health-care stores saw an increase in sales last month. Read the full article here . Prices declined last month as well. The Labor Department reports this morning that U.S. producer prices dropped 1.2% in March. The year-to-year drop from March 2008 was 3.5%--the biggest decline since 1950. The primary reason appears to be a drop in energy prices. From Reuters : Core producer prices, which exclude food and energy costs, were unchanged in March compared with a forecast for a 0.1 percent rise. The core producer price index stood 3.8 percent higher measured against the same month last year. The Labor Department noted that among finished goods, energy prices turned down by 5.5 percent last month after rising 1.3 percent in February. They were 25.4 percent lower on a year-over-year basis. Gasoline prices fell 13.1 percent in March and were 50.7 percent lower compared with a year ago. Full article here .

  • GDP: 6.2% 4th Quarter Drop

    At the beginning of the month, the Commerce Department predicted that fourth quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures for 2008 would show 3.8% drop . This seemed low to some economists, and it turns out it was. Today Commerce released a revised estimate. From October through December, GDP dropped at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.2%--the biggest one quarter drop since 1982. This from the Bureau of Economic Analysis's news release : The decrease in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from exports, personal consumption expenditures, equipment and software, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a positive contribution from federal government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased. Most of the major components contributed to the much larger decrease in real GDP in the fourth quarter than in the third. The largest contributors were a downturn in exports and a much larger decrease in equipment and software. The most notable offset was a much larger decrease in imports. Final sales of computers subtracted 0.01 percentage point from the fourth-quarter change in real GDP, the same contribution as in the third quarter. Motor vehicle output subtracted 2.04 percentage points from the fourth-quarter change in real GDP after adding 0.16 percentage point to the third-quarter change. Exports decreased 23.6 percent in the 4th quarter. They had risen 3% in the 3rd quarter. The one area with significant growth was government spending--up 6.7%. As noted above, the figures aren't a big surprise. As Barry Rithotlz writes in a short but clear post , " WHO THE HELL IS STILL SURPRISED BY THESE NUMBERS?!?" But Marketplace 's Steve Henn will have a report today on just how the Commerce Department got its estimates wrong. Local listings are here .
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