U.S. Economy Showing Signs of Recession

While the U.S. economy is on the brink of a recession, the economy did expand at a .6% annual pace during the first quarter. Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina, said that, “If you were to take out the swing in inventories, these numbers would be negative.” In an interview with Bloomberg Television, he continued by saying,“We think we’re in recession, but I don’t know that the GDP numbers are going to turn negative at all in 2008.”

The largest part of the economy, household spending, grew during the last quarter at the slowest rate that it has since 2001, during the time when the U.S. was in a recession.