Recoveries Don't Get Much Weaker Than This

While some investors and economists were surprised by this morning's weaker than expected GDP report for Q4 2011, it was really just par for the course.  Since the recession ended in June 2009, we have consistently seen growth rates that were weaker than estimated.  What's even more noteworthy is that for each of the ten quarters so far in this recovery, quarterly GDP growth for the US economy has been below the median post WWII growth rate every single quarter.  Historically speaking, the US economy has typically shown growth of 3.0% during the 10th quarter of a recovery/expansion.  Based on this morning's Q4 GDP report, though, growth in the most recent quarter was only 2.8%.

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