Reuters reports on Federal Reserve research concluding that poor Q1 economic growth was, in fact, poor economic growth, and not some statistical aberration.

While not new news, it's a useful (and quick!) read: Fed staff says first quarter slowdown was real, not a fluke of statistics

  • Staff said they conducted a variety of statistical tests to see if something was funny about Q1 GDP estimates and they concluded that, in fact, bad weather, "statistical noise," and unspecified "idiosyncratic factors" in the economy were more likely to blame -- not an underlying data problem.

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If you want more on this sort of stuff, the FT had a great piece up a day or so ago: Another lingering cost of the bubble: weirdly seasonal GDP data?