Full GDP release from the BEA.

Key highlights:

Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to the "third" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 2.2 percent. The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from private inventory investment, exports, personal consumption expenditures (PCE), and nonresidential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased. The acceleration in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected an acceleration in private inventory investment, an upturn in nonresidential fixed investment, an acceleration in exports, and a deceleration in imports that were partly offset by decelerations in PCE and in federal government spending.

Revision basis:

The third estimate of the fourth-quarter increase in real GDP is 0.3 percentage point, or $11.6 billion, lower than the second estimate issued last month, primarily reflecting downward revisions to nonresidential fixed investment, to private inventory investment, and to PCE.

Deflator:

The price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures prices paid by U.S. residents, increased 2.0 percent in the fourth quarter, 0.1 percentage point more than in the second estimate; this index increased 1.3 percent in the third quarter. Excluding food and energy prices, the price index for gross domestic purchases increased 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with an increase of 0.3 percent in the third.

The communist government:

Real federal government consumption expenditures and gross investment were unchanged in the fourth quarter, compared with an increase of 8.0 percent in the third. National defense decreased 3.6 percent, in contrast to an increase of 8.4 percent. Nondefense increased 8.3 percent, compared with an increase of 7.0 percent. Real state and local government consumption expenditures and gross investment decreased 2.2 percent, compared with a decrease of 0.6 percent.

Current-dollar GDP

Current-dollar GDP -- the market value of the nation's output of goods and services -- increased 6.1 percent, or $211.7 billion, in the fourth quarter to a level of $14,453.8 billion. In the third quarter, current-dollar GDP increased 2.6 percent, or $90.9 billion.

Total debt: $12.606 trillion. Debt to GDP: 87.2%. Adding $6.264 trillion in GSE debt which is explicitly backed and should be on the Treasury's book, the total debt is $18.87 trillion and the Total Adjusted Debt to GDP is 130.6%. Total on and off balance sheet debt to GDP: ridiculous.



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