The US Economy Is Finally Growing As It Should

The government released the first estimate of economic growth for the third quarter of 2017.  It showed that the economy grew at a rate of 3.0% during the quarter.  This is a great report.  The GDP is the one indicator that measures the economy as a whole, so a good growth rate here means on average everything is doing well.  Under president Obama, his war on business was such that he never managed to have a year in which the economy grew at 3.0% or higher.  That made Obama the first president since these statistics began to be kept about 100 years ago to fail to achieve that growth rate.  In two quarters under Trump, the economy hit 3% both times (the second quarter growth was 3.1%).  It's amazing what a removal of needless regulations and a change in attitude at the top can do for the American economy.  These results are even better because the three percent growth rate was achieved despite the battering that the economy took from three major hurricanes.  Without those storms the economy would have grown by at least another half a percent.  Since that missing growth is likely to be picked up during the fourth quarter, we are already well on our way towards another great quarter.

It is important to know that today's figure is only the first estimate.  There will be three refinements to the number as more data comes in.  We could see the number go up or down by half a percent.  The point, however, is that the first estimate sets the parameters for the final number (which we won't get until some time in the summer of 2018.)

It's great to write about pure good news for once.