Updated Recession Stats 2013

From time to time we review the Recession Stats from the St Louis FED. Today seemed like a good day give what the FOMC decided. The first above is Industrial Production. Now this does not appear that bad. Not great but not bad. We are producing at about normal for this time in a recovery. But remember this is 52 Quarters, 156 Months after the nadir!

The above is Personal Income growth. This is the worst recovery ever for this factor. Personal Income, other than for Bankers and Sports Folks, is horrible. That is the engine for any growth and we see none. How do we reconcile that with employment? We don't since the employment numbers are all rigged as we have been showing for five years.

The above is Employment. It also is at the bottom or nearly so. The Employment numbers are deplorable and will not change much in the months to come.

Yet for some reason Retail Sales has remained on a norm. It in fact is getting a bit above average. If unemployment is high and salaries are low then what one wonders is driving this?

The GDP growth is above. It is below the lowest for any prior Recession and is getting worse. It is clear that we are no where out of any Recession, not with this number.

Personal Consumption as an element of GDP is low and a drag. In fact this almost single-handedly is holding it back.

Private Investment returned quickly and has regained an average level. Thus people with money are doing well but people with jobs are sinking slowly.

Government Consumption has been level and is not a driver for any growth despite all the concerns. In fact the Stimulus was just wasted money incompetently allocated, so what else is new.

The following are Exports and Imports.

Nothing really new here although we seem to have a beneficial run up on Exports.

In summary this is the weakest recovery ever.