It was a busy week on the economic front.  We don’t often like to bombard you with this much detail, but many of these particular numbers are important.

The advance report for the 4th Quarter 2011 real Gross Domestic Product came in at an annualized +2.8%.  (By ‘advance’ of course, we’re referring to the first of several, increasingly more detailed, less estimated and presumably more accurate releases over the next several months.)  This was a bit lower than expected, as the consensus had been hovering around the +3.0% range; but was better than the 3rd Quarter’s +1.8% reading.  For the full year, real GDP was up +1.7% after a +3.0% year in 2010.  So the economy is slow, but ‘trudging’ along. Read more