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Megan McArdle

Megan McArdle - Megan McArdle is a senior editor for The Atlantic who writes about business and economics. She has worked at three start-ups, a consulting firm, an investment bank, a disaster recovery firm at Ground Zero, and The Economist. More

Megan was born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and yes, she does enjoy her lattes, as well as the occasional extra-dry skim-milk cappuccino. Her checkered work history includes three start-ups, four years as a technology project manager for a boutique consulting firm, a summer as an associate at an investment bank, and a year spent as sort of an executive copy girl for one of the disaster-recovery firms at Ground Zero … all before the age of 30.

While working at Ground Zero, Megan started Live From the WTC, a blog focused on economics, business, and cooking. She may or may not have been the first major economics blogger, depending on whether we are allowed to throw outlying variables such as Brad Delong out of the set. From there it was but a few steps down the slippery slope to freelance journalism. She has worked in various capacities for The Economist, where she wrote about economics and oversaw the founding of Free Exchange, the magazine's economics blog. She has also maintained her own blog, Asymmetrical Information, which moved to The Atlantic, along with its owner, in August 2007.

Megan holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. After a lifetime as a New Yorker, she now resides in northwest Washington, D.C., where she is still trying to figure out what one does with an apartment larger than 400 square feet.

Now I am over here . . . now I am over there . . .

By Megan McArdle
Aug 30 2007, 1:53 PM ET Comment

Perhaps what the economy needs is not a Fed chief, but a psychiatrist. It seems like it might need some lithium more than a rate cut.

This morning the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which calculates GDP, released its new estimates for the second quarter. Much to my personal surprise, it was a big upward revision. According to the BEA, the economy grew at an annualized pace of 4% in the second quarter, up from an earlier estimate of 3.4%. That estimate was itself a big upward surprise, after a very disappointing first quarter during which the economy grew at a tepid 0.6% annualised rate.

Whatever manic high we hit in the second quarter, needless to say, has now worn off. Economists are talking about something in the 1.5-2.5% range for the current quarter, with a projected downtrend heading into years end.

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