U.S. economy glows red hot with a 4.9% GDP reading for the third quarter
The nation’s economy expanded at a robust 4.9% annual rate from July through September as Americans defied higher prices, rising interest rates and widespread forecasts of a recession to spend at a brisk pace.
The Commerce Department said the economy expanded last quarter at the fastest pace in nearly two years — and more than twice the 2.1% annual rate of the previous quarter.
Thursday’s report on the nation’s gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — showed that consumers drove the acceleration, ramping up their spending on everything from cars to restaurant meals. Even though the painful inflation of the past two years has soured many people’s view of the economy, millions have remained willing to splurge on vacations, concert tickets and sports events.
https://fortune.com/2023/10/26/us-economy-third-quarter-gdp-4-9-percent-hot-consumer-spending/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
35 replies
Rich people get richer. When the recession comes, they’ll buy up smaller competitors with our tax money given to them as “bailouts.” It’s all bullshit. Always has been.
If the lowest income is zero and the highest income goes from ten billion to a hundred billion, then the median income went up.
Also, if the GDP goes up then GDP per capita goes up, and how it’s distributed doesn’t matter.
This is the madness economists want us to believe.
That's the mean (average), not the median (middle).
Median is the one where half the numbers are smaller and half are bigger. If only the top income changes, the median stays the same. The mean goes up.
Not only with our tax money but they'll also be buying everything up at a discount. Just like in 2008 when millions lost their homes, the rich fucks were able to buy them all up for pennies on the dollar in foreclosure sales instead of the market rate, sit on them for a few years, and then sell them back to us at 2-3x what they paid.
One salty dumbass bootlicker must’ve downvoted.
Every day is guillotine day if you're brave enough.
The best time to build a guillotine was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
If I ever ran for president, I'd run on the platform of building a permanent, working guillotine next to every capitol building in the US. Then I'd have a giant guillotine the size of the Statue of Liberty built of American steel, and have it sent to the people of France.
I don't know man, those J6 nutters did kinda demonstrate that it's surprisingly easy. No one expects the guillotine.
There's got to be a better way than sinking to their level.
Same, unfortunately.
Also, I'm not great at carpentry.
I love the symmetry of this. I bet the French would set it up near Versailles.
K, why is it $9 for a box of Raisin Bran Crunch?
Cereals are all high-margin foods, they charge you that because you'll fucking pay it, you dirty little piggy. Oink oink
Anyway, switch to oatmeal, it's cheaper and there are a million different ways to make it
I haven't had cereal in like 25 years.
I haven't had breakfast in seven minutes, at least.
It is also much healthier.
Yes, almost all boxed cereal is basically candy. One serving of Raisin Bran Crunch has 19g of sugar, which is the same as half a can of coke
Okay but that’s the version with frosted bran flakes- it almost makes sense. The crazy thing is that regular Raisin Bran has 18g of sugar
You gotta pump that economy, one box of Raisin Bran at a time!
I used to buy 3 boxes at a time, and now I just eat gruel.
because that stuff is actually mostly cocaine
Because people are willing to pay it. Because they have the money to. When the economy is “hot” prices go up.
They also seem to go up when the economy is "cold"... it's like the game is rigged or something.
I don't think it's misleading at all. An economy is good when companies do good. Companies do good when they make more profit. They make more profit by paying workers less.
So if the GDP grows, it's because people on the bottom are getting squeezed even harder.
Maybe in the short term, but ultimately companies make profit when there are lots of consumers with the resources to buy their product. Squeezing employees makes them unable to consume as much, which slows the economy. Ten thousand people buying a $300 TV makes the company way more profit than ten millionaires buying a $30,000 TV.
GDP is a bumpy measure that tries to sum up a lot of complexity in one number, but over time (years) it grows faster when the middle class does well.
Then why bother looking at the number quarterly?
The fed rn
Clearly I must redouble my efforts to hurt the economy, the mortal enemy of all life everywhere.
Time to lower my productivity again.
Hurting productivity is a CIA-recommended tool to fight fascism
https://www.openculture.com/2015/12/simple-sabotage-field-manual.html
Or for a more subdued version, see "work to rule". You do your job to the letter, and not a millimeter more. If your job is to make a part, do that and nothing else. Getting it over to packaging? That's not my job.
your couch is obviously slacking off
when good news is actually bad news, you know you are in Wonderland, Alice