Your Number's Up Again

Back on January 30th, the government popped out a 4Q GDP decline of 3.8% and said "Hey, it wasn't so bad!"

Then, today, they revised it. Down 6.2%.

The U.S. economy contracted more sharply than initially estimated in the fourth quarter, government data showed on Friday, as exports plunged and consumers cut spending by the most in over 28 years amid a severe recession.

The Commerce Department said gross domestic product, which measures the total output of goods and services within U.S. borders, fell at an annual rate of 6.2 percent in the October-December quarter, the deepest slide since the first quarter of 1982. The government last month estimated the drop in fourth-quarter GDP at 3.8 percent.

The weaker GDP estimate reflected downward revisions to inventories and exports by the department.

The decline was worse than analysts' expectations for a 5.4 percent contraction in fourth-quarter GDP. The economy expanded 1.1 percent in 2008, the slowest pace since 2001, the department said.

Back in January I called the decline at 6% even, and I thought I was highballing the number at the time. That 6.2% is bad. Flying Spaghetti Monster help me, but I think it's going to get worse this quarter.

We'll see in May, I guess.