LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Merrill Lynch upgraded its forecast for U.S. GDP growth for the second half of 2009 on Thursday. The broker now expects growth to average 2.7% quarter-on-quarter annualized, compared to a previous forecast of 1.4%. "Headline GDP stands to print stronger than we previously anticipated as growth emerges from a multitude of sources," the broker said. It believes consumer spending is likely to benefit from stimulus programs, that a stabilization in homebuilding and slightly positive home sales could continue going forward, that trade will add to headline GDP and that companies will continue to work down stocks at a rapid clip. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/merrill-lynch-ups-us-gdp-forecast From 1,4 to 2,7 % is quite a jump...
If you were a bank and you were getting paid to keep free money on your books and then making essentially infinite returns on lending and able to hide you invisible toxic debts, you'd think life was improving too...
I wonder how much of that GDP is from the government spending 1.8 trillion of money printed out of thin air
Likely most of it. In the near future whatever "growth and recovery" the government claims we're having will be from the extra money they borrowed and spent. On the surface, that will seem like a positive... until the debt created is considered. Not any different, really, than someone "living it up" on his charge card with no intention of ever repaying.