Recent Economic Data Has Been Bleak But There Is Hope for Q2 GDP

Is the glass half full or half empty?

A Boeing employee works on the tail of a Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental June 13, 2012 at the Boeing Factory in Everett, Washington. Stephen Brashear/Getty Images

After the shocking decline of 0.7 percent in GDP for the first quarter of 2015, all hopes have been pinned on the summer.

However, things have been looking bleak recently with even the New York Fed admitting that “real consumption expenditures have yet to show signs of a significant pickup from a slowdown in winter … despite better weather.”

Some people even talk about a technical recession of two consecutive quarters of GDP growth: “Industrial production, new orders for durable goods, and real retail sales have generated solid signals of an unfolding recession.  New headline detail in monthly economic releases through the end of July increasingly should confirm that circumstance,” says John Williams of ShadowStats.

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