There was some very good news for the economy last week, when the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that GDP had grown at 3.5 percent in the third quarter. While that's down from the 4.6 percent we had in the second quarter, it's still an above-average figure for the post-Recession economy.
Many of the indicators dropped somewhat from the strong second quarter, but most of them remained strong. Personal consumption fell from a 2.5 percent increase in the second quarter to a 1.8 percent increase in the third. Exports fell from an increase of 11.1 percent to 7.8 percent. Durable goods fell from 14.1 percent to 7.2 percent. Remember, those second quarter numbers were starting from a much lower floor after a miserable first quarter, in which the economy actually shrank.
The one area in which growth increased over the second quarter was in federal spending. After defense spending increased by just 0.9 percent in the second quarter, it jumped up by 16.0 percent in the third.
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