Today, the U.S Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released official statistics of real state personal consumption expenditures (PCE) for the first time. The new statistics cover the period from 2008 to 2020. Real PCE decreased 3.8 percent in 2020 for the nation after increasing 2.2 percent in 2019. Across states, the percent change ranged from 2.2 percent in Utah to –7.0 percent in Hawaii, Maryland, and New York; the percent change was –8.9 percent in the District of Columbia (table 1). In 2020, real PCE decreased in 47 states and the District of Columbia and increased in only three states: Utah (2.2 percent), Idaho (2.0 percent), and Montana (1.0 percent). Real state PCE is a state's current-dollar PCE adjusted by the state's regional price parity and the national PCE price index. In Utah, Idaho, and Montana current-dollar PCE increased while their implicit regional price deflators decreased 1.0 percent, 0.7 percent, and 0.6 percent respectively (table2).…