Recession eases; GDP dip smaller than expected - [STLtoday.com Business]

According to Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, "As we suspected, things got a lot less bad in terms of economic activity. It means we turned a corner earlier this year in terms of the severity of the recession," he said. "The free market correction is abating quickly."

Achuthan went on to explain that the recession turned into "an abyss" last fall as the credit market froze. But trillions of dollars in government programs to ease credit have largely succeeded, which helped normal business cycle dynamics take over.

So, amazingly, that means that the U.S. Government was actually successful in saving the economy, by all current indicators. And, while it built up a tremendous national debt in the process, we all have an opportunity now to keep the fiscal discipline we're now being taught and work together to build our economy back up and pay down that debt.