The National Bureau of Economic Research, a private firm deemed the
official arbiter of U.S. business cycles, officially dated the slump
from March to November 2001.

From Reuters, 12/10/03:
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Business/reuters20031210_145.html

By Andrea Hopkins

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -

The U.S. economy shrank in the third quarter of 2000, the government
said on Wednesday in revisions to official figures that showed America
was on the brink of recession months earlier than previously thought.

The sweeping changes by the Commerce Department also downgraded the
expansion that followed the 2001 slump, albeit only slightly.

However, the revisions were not applied to third-quarter 2003 data --
leaving the most recent measure of growth unchanged at a swift annual
clip of 8.2 percent.

The next reading of third-quarter growth is scheduled for later in
December.

Until now, statisticians at Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis
believed the economy did not start shrinking until early 2001.

But extensive revisions dating back to 1929, incorporating both
improved statistics and changes to definitions, revealed a contraction
in gross domestic product, or GDP, in the July-to-September quarter of
2000.

Instead of inching ahead at the first reported 0.6 percent annual rate
in that quarter, GDP shrank 0.5 percent, Commerce said.

The weaker estimate is mostly due to a larger drop in private
inventories than previously reported.

President Bush and his economic team have long insisted he inherited a
recession from the former Clinton administration, and the White House
may seize on these new numbers to back that claim.

The economy bounced back smartly in the fourth quarter but the
revisions show the economy weakened just before hitting the top of the
business cycle late in 2000.

"The cyclical peak is still the fourth quarter of 2000, but this does
indicate that there was perhaps more slowing before the downturn than
the estimates had previously shown," said Brent Moulton, who is in
charge of compiling the GDP report for the Bureau of Economic
Analysis.

The National Bureau of Economic Research, a private firm deemed the
official arbiter of U.S. business cycles, officially dated the slump
from March to November 2001.

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What other numbers do you suppose Karl Rove is gonna order to be
fudged in preparation for Bush's 2004 campaign?

Harry

What other numbers do you suppose Karl Rove is gonna order to be
fudged in preparation for Bush's 2004 campaign?