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Revisions, revisions

Economic growth, Financial Events
By Paul Hodges on 31-Jul-2008

Statisticians love re-writing economic history. And a notable example of this has occurred today. US government statisticians reported that the US economy actually declined by 0.2% at the end of last year. Whereas, 6 months ago, they reported it as having grown by 0.6%.

Few readers of this blog will be too surprised. Earlier this year, Warren Buffett and Martin Feldstein (the Harvard professor responsible for officially defining recession), were both quoted here as saying that they thought the US was already in recession during Q1.