the dow jones fell 537 points, just about 100 on friday alone. the gdp grew just 1.6% in the last year. and just under half a percent in the first quarter of this eric thompson is senior editor at the atlantic. have we seen the effects of a possible downgrade here that cannot be reversed? i think you re seeing a lot of economists saying this isn t a jobless recovery any more. it s a recoveriless recovery. we thought the economy was growing around 2.5% in the last year. now we know it s growing closer to 0.8% in the last half year. economists were wrong. this is not a stable recovery that has joblessness. this is a recovery that has no growth. this credit rating downgrade