A well-executed overview of the poor state of the economy. Kudos to the reporters for explaining why the fourth-quarter numbers had been revised. My only caveat is that is a lot of disparate information packed into the story, making it some what difficult to follow.

While others waste time deliberating about whether or not it's apt to compare this recession to the Great Depression, WSJ gives us the straight facts about growth over the last quarter. Well done.

In-depth stories about our economic situation are not only good reads, they are essential to understanding our way forward. Education of the public is always the first role newspapers should play.

A dismal if factual report on the state of the economy, this article provides factual evidence to support its title both in the narrative of the report and the interactive graphs provided. Where the article moves into speculation about a future recovery, it is nicely balanced with different points of view, however it provides little to support anyone's speculation, and doesn't go into much depth in this area.

Informative and concise overview of the 'state of the crisis', citing extensive factual evidence to suggest that a rebound is unlikely this year. This article contrasts the more optimistic views of the Obama Administration with the bleaker outlook from Federal Reserve officials and retailers in the trenches. Be sure to check the outstanding interactive graphics by Pat Minczeski and Alex Lowe -- including the additional graphic on consumer spending in the WSJ.com blog (see link).

The BEA has lots of numbers, and this story neglects to mention that it gives the real GDP numbers. If another story reports current dollar numbers they will seem to contradict. Also it might have been good to mention that the numbers still are not final. The Kelly Evans video clip tells pretty much the same story in less detail, a useful second way to get some of the information. The interactive chart tool is very nice; it helps to see the big picture. The viewpoint set is pretty good.

a quite sobering picture of our economy laid out upon the facts/figures for vital factors, of the last quarter, corrected and, most helpfully, shown in easy to read graphs; altho here there's not much speculation here, a potential domino effect implied from these figures would indicate a further spiraling down to go--to include more jobs and home mortgages. and not much discussion of the recovery act as a safety net. for those not usually reading these, a graph comparison ... More »

A report on the sorry situation the last eight years of greed and spending has done to this country. While the stimulus is not the end all of end all, it's a start. With the new budget, while nothing we've ever seen, we have to roll the dice and hope it's not snake-eyes.

This is a standard economic report developed to an art by the Wall Street Journal for the information that it conveys, rather than for the insight. In other words, the message is the recession will linger despite what Washington and the Federal Reserve predict.

Solid big-picture view of our bleak economic outlook through key indicators, with reference to parallel drops for our major trade partners.

Because of recent biased articles in WSJ, I no longer trust the accuracy of its reporting and thus didn't rate this story as highly as others. I found the article to be overwritten and not at all straight forward in its topic points. Still, its sobering message is correct: things are going to get a lot worse and remain a lot worst for a very long time.

A very well-detailed article, complete with charts, graphs, and other backup data.

A complete assessment of where the U.S. economy stands now, and what the rest of 2009 could look like. The reporting team puts U.S. economic troubles in appropriate context by bringing in statistics about other country's economic indicators. Thoroughly sourced. The "Pulling Back" graphic at end of the piece presents additional stats in an easily understandable format.