Gold Imports Expose Atlanta Fed’s Broken Models — And Why the New GDPNow Will Fail Too

The GDPNow Collapse: Another Model, Another Failure The Atlanta Fed’s much-hyped GDPNow model — supposedly a cutting-edge tool for forecasting U.S. GDP growth — was obliterated this quarter by a flood of gold imports. That's right: a surge in physical gold, largely investor-driven, made their algorithm crash and burn. For those who don't track every grim move of these institutions (and frankly, you shouldn't have to), here’s the short version: GDPNow had been predicting steady 2%+ growth for Q1. But when January’s trade data was plugged in on February 28, the model imploded — swinging a staggering five percentage points into the red. Clickbait peddlers quickly proclaimed a looming depression. What no one in the media bothered to explain was…