Protect Your A$$ets...: GDP

Friday, February 17, 2017

Putting America's $18 Billion Economy in Global Perspective

The map above was created by matching economic output in US states in 2014 to foreign countries with comparable nominal GDPs, using BEA data for GDP by U.S. state and GDP by country from the International Monetary Fund, via Wikipedia here.

For each U.S. state (and the District of Columbia), Carpe Diem tried to find the country closest in economic size in 2014 (measured by nominal GDP), and for each state there was a country with a pretty close match – those countries are displayed in the map above and in the table below.

Obviously, in some cases the closest match was a country that produced slightly more, or slightly less, economic output in 2014 than a given U.S. state.

It’s pretty amazing how ridiculously large the US economy is, and the map above helps put America’s GDP of nearly $18 trillion in 2014 into perspective by comparing the GDP of U.S. states to other country’s entire national GDP.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

GDP Forecast: UGH!

The People Who Nailed The Horrific Q1 GDP Number Have Bad News About Q2

The Atlanta Fed nailed US gross domestic product in the first quarter.

On Wednesday, we learned that the US economy grew by just 0.2%, far below the consensus forecast among economists for 1% growth. Of the 86 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, only four estimated that GDP growth would be 0.2% or lower.

The Atlanta Fed had long forecast 0.2% growth before revising it down to 0.1% after last Friday's durable goods report.

And just a day after the disappointing Q1 GDP release, the Atlanta Fed has news about Q2: the economy will grow by just 0.9%, according to their latest forecast. Here's what they wrote in a post on their website:

"The initial GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the second quarter of 2015 was 0.9 percent on April 30.

Real GDP grew 0.2 percent in the first quarter, according to the "advance" estimate from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 0.1 percentage point higher than the GDPNow model nowcast."

Economists noted that the winter weather, West Coast port strikes, and lower energy prices slowed down the economy — all temporary factors.

Still, for a sense of how gloomy the Atlanta Fed's forecast is, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is forecasting 3.5% growth. Goldman Sachs is forecasting 3.0% growth.