Numbers newly available on Thursday show an annualized rate of growth in gross domestic product (GDP) at 4.9 percent in the third quarter of this year — the highest since the closing quarter of 2021, which was followed by two quarters of contraction.
Reports describe the new numbers as beating expectations. “There are no signs of a downturn in this year’s GDP economic data, contrary to the widespread expectations — but the outlook for 2024 is more uncertain,” Axios said. Outside the economic field, there have also long been proclamations that Joe Biden and Democrats in general holding power means socio-economic desolation for the United States, and former President Donald Trump is basing a significant chunk of his campaign for a return to the White House on the contention that the U.S. has somehow been dramatically spiraling into decay since he left the presidency. The evidence doesn’t support this idea.
A slight majority of the latest economic growth came evidently from rises in consumer spending. (Measurements of GDP are often tied to the procurement end, meaning the point when a good or service is actually purchased rather than just offered.) There were also strong numbers in business and government spending. These rises correlate to specific pushes from the federal government for expansion in areas like infrastructure spending and support for domestic tech manufacturing of goods like semiconductor chips, which are utilized in a wide variety of products across the marketplace.
Though tactics have sometimes shifted, the federal government has also pursued measures to protect how far that consumer dollars can actually go through stemming inflation. Somehow, one such tactic — releases from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which stood to help lower gas prices with boosts to available supply — sparked Republican opposition. Transpiring before the 2022 midterms, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) even alleged the moves constituted some kind of election interference!
