Let’s say you click the appropriate boxes to choose 1990, quarterly to current. Look at Durable and Non-durable goods as a change from the previous period. You will note there are occasionally negative quarterly numbers before & during Clinton’s time. Run the series again for the same time period but click annual instead of quarterly, you will notice two consecutive negative years in either Durable goods for 1990 & 91, but nothing after that to present.

Also notice the last true recession was in 1990 (IV) & 1991 (I) consecutive quarters. The idea that two negative consecutive quarters can’t happen anymore is a flagrant lie to misrepresent either one negative or small growth quarter as the new standard, it can occur if there is a true slow down of the economy. What’s really interesting is the negative numbers simultaneously occured in housing & imports of goods and services for both quarters. Something we should be concerned about is that the precursor to that recession was 1990 (III) quarter was the negative residential housing number in conjunction with a negative imported goods number as we had in 2000/01 (dotcom bust leading up to 911) and have now for the 2007 (IV) quarter. According to economic history imports are the real indicator of economic health.