Double Dippery

There's a weird debate floating around out there between the double dip bears and the no double dip bulls. It doesn't matter. +.2% GDP versus -.2% GDP growth is mostly (though not entirely) meaningless. Unemployment that isn't dropping it a reasonable clip is a problem either way. Not entering into another recession as measured by GDP is not actually a success.

Also, too, maybe somebody should do something.

8/09/2011 - Economic recovery appears to have come close to a halt in the major industrialised economies, with falling household and business confidence affecting both world trade and employment, according to new analysis from the OECD. Growth remains strong in most emerging economies, albeit at a more moderate pace.

“Growth is turning out to be much slower than we thought three months ago, and the risk of hitting patches of negative growth going forward has gone up,” OECD Chief Economist Pier Carlo Padoan said during a presentation of the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Assessment.

Economic growth in the G7 economies excluding Japan will remain at an annualised rate of less than 1% in the second half of 2011.