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Market review and update as of Wednesday March 3, 2010.

The news on the U.S. economy has been decidedly mixed lately. The growth rate for the fourth quarter has been revised upwards from 5.7% to 5.9%. Keep in mind that is an annualized rate not the absolute growth rate from quarter to quarter. In the United States we take the quarter to quarter rate of growth and then annualize it to come up with the published data. Europe does not annualize their quarterly growth rates. They publish growth rates from one quarter to the next. Annualizing in ordinary times is not an issue. However in this time of recovery from a deep recession the annualized rate can lift expectations higher than they should be. The President, for example, is taking credit for what he calls a dramatic improvement in the economy. He says in one year growth has gone form minus 6% to almost plus 6%. The problem is ...