The Commerce Department reported that the third quarter GDP ending 9/30/22 expanded at an annual rate of 2.6%. It followed on the heels of a negative first two quarters. The GDP expansion was another blow to the doom and gloom GOP and their supporters who were predicting another negative quarter.
The Department also reported retail sales for September were up 0.6%. It was a continuation of the good news concerning the federal budget that ended fiscal year on Sept. 30. That budget recorded a 50% reduction in the federal deficit from the previous fiscal year and federal spending decreased 8% from the previous fiscal year. The good economic news disappointed the GOP negative voices and their enablers who had predicted an economic recession before the end of 2022. They are now saying it will take place sometime before the end of 2023.
The expansion of the GDP prompted other negative pundits to predict that the Feds may hold back in the next round of interest rate hikes. Those are the same pundits who urged the Feds to raise interest rates high and fast which they know would trigger an economic recession with the loss of jobs and an increase in unemployment. But they don't care, they just want to see the President fail.
So, the economy continues to work, create jobs, lower unemployment and the consumer continues to spend despite inflation. Maybe they remember that inflation in 1980 was 13.5% and 10.3% in 1981 and that from 1979 thru 1982 inflation averaged 10.32% per year. And no one should forget that the average 30 year home mortgage rate from 1981 thru 1983 averaged 15.27%. Yes, you read those numbers correctly.
The negative voices want the country to fail so bad they can taste it. They lack the character and courage to face the facts that the economy is working, despite their lies and misinformation and that it is a democratic administration who once again reversed the economic disaster of a previous republican administration.
And that really says it all.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
