Economy Shrank in Second Quarter

Only one quarter of contraction away from a recession! Ca-Na-Da! Ca-Na-Da!

The Canadian economy shrank during the second quarter of this year, marking the first time since the Great Recession of '09 (are we cool with calling it that? We are? Great!) that the country's gross domestic product has contracted. Between April and June, GDP fell by 0.4 per cent after posting a 3.6-per-cent growth in the first quarter, according to Statistics Canada. Now, economists and the like are saying they expect that trend to reverse by the next quarter (otherwise, hellloooo Double Dip Recession of '11), but that sort of glosses over the fact that demand for energy exports, which are essentially the lifeblood of the Canadian economy, fell sharply last quarter as growth in the U.S. remained at a sluggish one per cent. Suddenly, grad school doesn't seem like such a terrible idea...