Thursday, March 26, 2009

If It's Thursday...

...it's time for my favorite game, more record unemployment numbers (and a downward revision in the 4Q 2008 GDP.)
Separately, the number of workers collecting state unemployment benefits rose to a record 5.56 million earlier this month, while new claims rose to 652,000 in the week ended March 21, the Labor Department said.Analysts polled by Reuters had expected continued claims to total about 5.48 million during the week ended March 14, the most recent data available. The number of new claims for the week of March 21 had been forecast at 650,000.
But here's the killer number for the economy:
Private business inventories were revised to show a $25.8 billion decline, previously reported as a $19.9 billion fall, as business responded to the slump in demand by cutting output.

Business investment, which is typically made when companies are planning production increases, fell at a 21.7 percent rate, the biggest fall since the first quarter of 1975, from a previously estimated 21.1 percent contraction. Residential investment fell 22.8 percent in the fourth quarter.

That's a massive contraction in the business sector. Not the manufacturing sector or the service sector, the whole freakin' business sector.

Just gonna get worse.


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