GOOD NEWS! GDP STILL A RIP ROARING 1.8% IN THIS BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE ECONOMIES

Overall, the data left the first quarter looking weaker as higher oil prices and severe weather (you know that can't last forever!) sapped the strength seen in the fourth quarter.

Final sales, which exclude inventory behavior, were revised down to a 0.6% gain in the first quarter from the initial estimate of a 0.8% increase.

The report also included revised labor-compensation data that were much weaker than first estimated.

Real disposable personal incomes increased at a revised 0.8% annual rate in the first quarter, compared with the initial 2.9% estimate. Income in the fourth quarter was also revised lower.

So why was the GDP number not revised lower? Because business inventories (stuff they've made but haven't sold) was revised upward! And of course you know they'll sell it all, and make lots of money and hire lots of people in the FUTURE!

And anyway, the economy is growing - not shrinking. You know there's lots of starving countries in Africa that would love to have a 1.8 percent growth rate. Lots of countries that go to bed hungry every night with no GDP at all!

And a survey of Leading Economists assures us that next quarter our GDP will grow by 3.4%. So there, all you Frownie Freddies!

So what if we were forced to account for our GDP the way the IMF makes those African countries account for their GDP ours would be negative too. The IMF can't tell us what to do. We're the United States of America, the Best of All Possible Countries, in the best of all possible worlds. So smile. Don't frown. And buy lots of stocks!

Or, if you're crazy, buy gold. Dennis Gartman, a long time critic of gold has now converted fully to the gold camp and writes today: "This then brings us to our daily discussion of gold of which we remain steadfastly bullish in dollar terms and in terms of other currencies. Gold, as we wish to say and as others are coming to believe and understand, is now a currency rather than a commodity. Silver, platinum and palladium are the precious commodities; gold is the precious currency.