Mainstream Economists: The U.S. Economy Shrank In Q1, But Better Days Are Just Around The CornerMichael Snyder None of them seem the least bit concerned that another major recession is rapidly approaching. Instead, they just blamed the bad number for the first quarter on a severe winter, and the financial markets responded to the GDP news quite cheerfully. In fact, the SP 500 soared to another brand new record high. No matter how bad the numbers get, almost everyone in the financial world seems quite optimistic. But is there actually good reason to have such optimism? As Zero Hedge has pointed out, if it wasnt for dramatically increased healthcare spending due to the implementation of Obamacare, U.S. GDP would have actually dropped at a 2 percent annual rate during the first quarter of 2014. That would have been an absolutely disastrous number. But within a very short time of the revised U.S. GDP number being released, the mainstream media was inundated with positive stories about the news. For example, CNN published a story entitled U.S. economy shrinks, but its not a big deal and CNBC released a survey of nine prominent economists that showed that their consensus forecast for the second quarter of 2014 is GDP growth at a 3.74 percent annual rate. It just seems like almost everyone wants to forget about what happened during the first quarter and wants to look ahead to a great number for quarter two. For example, just check out these quotes Stuart Hoffman, the chief economist for PNC Bank: The first quarter was disappointing, but rather than view that as an omen of a recession or the first of a down leg in the economy, I see the seeds of a big bounce back in spring. Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics: For those worried about a recession, its worth remembering that employment increased by nearly 300,000 in April. The Bank of Tokyos Chris Rupkey: 2Q growth seen at nearly 4% Weak 1Q is stone cold dead as an indicator of where the economy is headed. Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs: Because of weaker inventory investment in Q1, we increased our Q2 GDP tracking estimate by two-tenths to 3.9%. Dun Bradstreet Credibility Corp. CEO Jeffrey Stibel: Using an alternative model for projecting job growth, we see an entirely different scenario, one in which the U.S. unemployment rate will fall below 5 percent by no later than the middle of next year. Hopefully they are right. Hopefully we are not heading into another recession. But as I discussed in an article earlier this week, evidence continues to mount that another recession has already begun for much of the country. And there was another number that was released today that seems to confirm this. According to CNBC, there was a 6 percent drop in exports in the first quarter of 2014 when compared to the first quarter of 2013 We saw a similar decline happen in mid-2008 as the U.S. economy plunged into recession. And Bloombergs Consumer Comfort index has fallen to the lowest level that we have seen in six months. U.S. consumers are increasingly tapped out, and the ongoing retail apocalypse is evidence of that fact. A declining middle class simply cannot support the massive retail infrastructure that America has developed. As the middle class has fallen to pieces, it was just a matter of time before big trouble started erupting for the retail industry. This is something thatDavid Stockman recently wrote about Without middle class jobs, you cant have a middle class. That is why our employment crisis is at the very heart of our economic problems. Even using the governments highly manipulated unemployment figures, there are still quite a few cities out there that have official unemployment rates in the double digits But of course the truth is that if the government actually used honest numbers, the unemployment rate for the entire nation would be in double digits. And as I like to remind people, according to the governments own numbers approximately 20 percent of the families in the entire nation do not have a single member that is employed. So how is it possible that the unemployment rate is just a little above 6 percent? It is a giant sham. But that is what they want. They want us feeling good and thinking that everything is going to be okay. Unfortunately, they used the same approach back in 2007 and 2008, and we all remember how that turned out. This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. 