The bulls cheered when the Department of Commerce told us GDP was 3.5%, but then the estimate was quietly lowered to 2.8%, and now we hear that 2.2% is a more like it. In reality of course, when you take away government expenditures, which should not be in GDP anyway as they are not Production, the economy continued to shrink. What else would you believe given that credit is still rapidly contracting and government is throwing sand into any market mechanisms that would clear away the bad debt?