About the GDP. These numbers come from people. People who might worry about being fired

[rzemanfl]

on Twitter. People who might worry about their pensions, insurance, paying their kid's tuition, the mortgage, car payment, etc. Nothing from this government is trustworthy anymore. Fear is a motivator, probably more of one than professionalism or pride. That's all I have to say. Now I am going to try to sleep in Trumpist Dumbfuckistan.

[RockRaven]

1. From what I heard on the radio today, approx 1% of GDP this past quarter was attributed

to (very transiently) increased export numbers due to parties placing orders/making payments in advance of anticipated tariffs from Trump's trade war. It was a bookkeeping gimmick on the part of the buyers who would have bought the same amount of whatever in any given time period, but just committed early to their next order to lock in the pre-tariff price.

Which means all those sales were merely accelerated in time from next quarter's numbers to this quarter's numbers. And that means next quarter's numbers will lack those revenues. Anticipate the other shoe to drop in a few months.

[rzemanfl]

3. I've seen that and don't deny this is a factor.

[pnwmom]

2. The investment firm that manages our retirement accounts sent out an email

warning that this quarter's growth might come at the expense of growth in the rest of the year.

It's just a mirage.

[rzemanfl]

4. An honest government would have said that.