RJ and Makay

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has reduced its estimate for first-quarter GDP growth from 2.2% to 1.5% — the most pessimistic forecast on Wall Street.

Although the job market is improving, wage growth isn't keeping up with inflation, the brokerage points out, adding that recent data on construction have also been weak. Furthermore, even if there are only modest revisions to January and February data and monthly consumption grows 0.3% in March, annualized consumption will still be just 2.3% in the first quarter, Merrill says.

A large majority of economists — 62% — think the Federal Reserve's $600 billion bond-purchase program, also known as quantitative easing, is helping to support U.S. growth. The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) reported that finding recently after surveying 263 of its members.

Of the survey respondents, 21.8% thought quantitative easing was having no impact and 15.8% said it was harmful. When asked about the level of monetary stimulus, slightly more than half said it's just right and 41% described it as too stimulative.

It's been all over the internet lately, so you might already have heard: Financial advisor (FA) is high up on the list of careers associated with depression.

That uplifting tidbit was reported in a recent Health.com article listing the top fields in which full-timers are most apt to report an episode of major depression. FA was number 9 on the list. (The top 3 were Nursing Home/Child Care Worker, Food Service Staff, and Social Worker.)