When the year began the U.S. economy was struggling out of the “worst recession since the Great Depression”. The pace of economic growth was considered insufficient to provide a “substantial downward push to the unemployment rate.” Unfortunately for the beer industry, the strong consensus is and for years now has been that unemployment will persist at elevated levels for years to come. Much of Q2’s economic data reinforced this rather unpleasant economic prognosis. This had economists and small businesses revising projections to reflect disappointing news.

Continue reading M4 – Malted Minds Macro Minute: 2011 – Q2