It looks like the Atlanta Federal Reserve has revised Q1, 2016 GDP downward from .5% to .01%.
Remember that last year Q1 GDP was .6% which was reportedly driven by the harsh winter. This year was one of the mildest winter in decades - So no winter/weather excuse.
As I reported in an earlier post
We Are In the Foothills of a Recession, three indicators point to a recession in our future. The biggest was that Rail Freight Carloads is down ~ 15% year over year.
I wonder if what DM speculated in the aforementioned subject line, is in our future,
"The feds will want to control all of the retirement plans in the nation. Take your money/pension promises and give you a promise in return..." or negative interest rates. Most of the Silver Bullets used to curb the spiral down of our economy have been shot by the Federal Reserve.
Below is a short excerpt from a Zero Hedge article. Enjoy....
Zero Hedge Reports:
...Yellen’s secret meeting at the White House followed an emergency secret Federal Reserve Board meeting. The Fed then held another secret meeting to discuss bank reform. These secret meetings come on the heels of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s estimate that first quarter GDP growth was .01 percent, dangerously close to the official definition of recession...
As a side note: In a meeting this morning with my business partner we told several stories of professionals we know out of work and taking any jobs to just make ends meet.
My story was of a good friend who is a legal beagle that 1 year ago was a VP of HR making six figures. Now waiting tables at 55 years of age in order to make his mortgage nut by the end of May.
My partner shared a similar story. A good friend of his who owned a successful business which eventually was a casualty of the Great Recession. He is now working the retail floor at Dicks Sporting Goods.
These two men were not on the dole. They were doing what it took to meet their family's needs.
In closing, I was at the grocery store yesterday. I asked my checker how he was doing and he said, "O-Kay I guess." I asked him, "Only O-Kay?" His response was that today was his day off and he got called in because someone called out sick. I told him, with no sympathy in my voice, "Well consider yourself lucky...You have a job. Many folks do not."
So there you have it. Your thoughts? Do you have experiences you can share?
