Fun facts from the GDP report released this morning, in addition to the 9.5% decline from the previous quarter (down 32.9% over the past four quarters), by far the biggest drop ever.

We’re making quite a bit more money altogether thanks to the pandemic. “Current-dollar personal income increased $1.39 trillion in the second quarter, compared with an increase of $193.4 billion in the first quarter.”

We’re spending a lot less less. “Personal outlays decreased $1.57 trillion, after decreasing $232.5 billion. The decrease in outlays was led by a decrease in PCE for services.”

We’re a lot more frugal than we were three months ago. “Personal saving was $4.69 trillion in the second quarter, compared with $1.59 trillion in the first quarter. The personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 25.7 percent in the second quarter, compared with 9.5 percent in the first quarter.”

So, bottom line, the death rate is up somewhat, and things have gotten very nasty politically, and masks are still a very good idea, even though they’re not pleasant when the weather’s warm, and some small businesses have closed and some large businesses are going into bankruptcy. But all and all, this pandemic has not turned out to be the total disaster we might have expected last February.

At least, not yet.