The holiday shopping season suggests that people have a good feeling about the direction of the US economy, and the Q3 data confirms it. Even before the Christmas shopping season, the economy grew at an impressive 4.3%.
Gross domestic product is a broad measure of the goods and services produced across the economy. Economists had expected the economy to grow at a 3.2 percent annual rate after the second quarter’s 3.8 percent growth.
Prior to the inflation adjustment, the economy grew at an 8.2 percent rate.
Q4 expectations are slightly downward because the US government has too many tentacles in the economy, and the Democrat shutdown kept it on the sidelines for a record number of weeks. A lesson not enough people will learn, which the “experts” who got everything wrong about Trump, tariffs, and trade wars (oh, my!), will claim is a sign that the economy is stalling, not roaring back. [Related: GrokTALK!: Are You Ready for the Economic Revolution?]
A stumble, if any, will still be a positive move away from Bidenomics, which was more of the same failed malaise-inducing new normal we suffered under Obama.
Consumer spending grew much faster than expected, expanding at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted annual rate of 3.5 percent. That’s up from 2.5 percent in the second quarter and above the 2.7 percent expected.
Donald Trump’s trade policies appear to have added to growth in the third quarter, as exports rose 8.8 percent while imports fell 4.7 percent. Exports add to GDP while imports, because they represent foreign production, are subtracted.
Government spending added 0.39 points to growth.
Other indicators we’ve already reported include a significant shift in job growth from government to the private sector, low and stable inflation, and the onshoring (re-shoring) of manufacturing jobs. Domestic energy production (the cheap, reliable variety) is on a growth track, as are high-tech jobs, and new energy infrastructure (predominantly nuclear – traditional and increasingly small-scale).
I’ve suggested, with no skepticism beyond past experience, and faith that Q1 could be the beginning of something truly wonderful (economically) if the Trump-hating factions don’t do something dramatic to undermine the process. Feel free to guess what it might take but last time they sold us on a pandemic with a significant mortality rate – at least until the actual data showed otherwise. But the initial scare was enough.
They can’t do it twice, and anything similar would be almost impossible to pull off, so I’d look for something military and possibly domestic. Like, Antifa igniting a civil war, or its proxies engaged in violence disguised as MAGA supporters. I can imagine larger engagements because the globalists/leftists will do anything to keep Trump from making America Great again or sustaining his ability to do that with a post-midterm Republican majority.
Good economic news is the death of Democrats’ midterm prospects, and we have more enemies than friends in the world who benefit from the US not prospering.
For the moment, the economic news and its future look great. Let’s see what the world tried to do to undermine it.
