Quite literally off the chart

NPR news: "The U.S. economy contracted at an annual rate of 5.7 percent in the first three months of 2009, slightly less than previously estimated, the Commerce Department said Friday. ..."

Sounds optimistic, but quite literally off the charts. A recent chart from CreditSights that shows annual changes in US GDP from 1948 to 2008.. to which I've added the minus 5.7% for (annualized) March 2009, for context.

hmmmm