Fundamentals 8/26: GDP Revised Down To 1%

GDP
-BEA’s second of three 2Q2011 GDP readings was revised down to 1% annualized. With BEA making so many discretionary adjustments it is getting difficult to gauge just how bad the economy is. If I were the suspicious sort I might be thinking that BEA saw +1.0% as a psychological barrier fearing much more serious equity selling if GDP were reported below that. The GDP deflator (a measure of inflation which weights each component by its percent of GDP) was +2.4% (seasonally adjusted annual rate.) The third and “final” 2Q GDP reading is September 29—but 1Q was revised a fourth time on June 29, and cut massively from 1.9% to 0.4%.

Corporate Profits
BEA announced Corporate Profits as unchanged year over year. BEA has different measure of Corporate Profits which you can learn about here.

Bernanke
Bernanke’s Jackson Hole, WY speech is in progress and he appears to be saying, “we’ll do whatever is necessary, blah, blah, blah” and is making no suggestions of a QE3.