Commercial Printing Outlook -- Build Up in Down Time

While the economy is very weak, the headlines have been “full of economic hyperbole,” points out Ronnie H. Davis, Ph.D, and Printing Industries of America’s (PIA) chief economist. Making comparisons to the Great Depression solely on the basis of big declines in the stock market gives the impression that other measures of economic health are equally bad, he explains. However, the numbers for real GDP (gross domestic product), personal consumption, industrial production, unemployment and inflation have all remained several magnitudes more positive in 2008 compared to the period from 1929 to 1934.