Despite small businesses everywhere imploding due to the continued lockdowns, occupancy limits and other Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions, the American economy is apparently doing fantastically well, according to the Department of Commerce.
The agency recently announced that the United States grew economically by 33.1 percent in the third quarter of 2020, the fastest growth rate ever recorded and a signal that post-coronavirus growth is better than expected.
Compared to last year's third quarter, the U.S. economy is still 3.5 percent smaller in 2020. However, because of how bad things got back in the spring and summer, this nominal third-quarter rebound appears substantial.
"This third-quarter GDP gain was fueled by a record 40.7 percent increase in consumer spending," writes John Carney for Breitbart News.
"Business investment surged 20.3 percent during the quarter, reflecting a 70.1 percent jump in investment in equipment. The housing market is booming: residential investment grew at a rate of 59.3 percent."
Third quarter growth follows second quarter decline
One thing to keep in mind with this news is the fact that second quarter GDP plummeted by 31.4 percent. This means that third quarter gains basically only made up for what was lost in the quarter prior.
Still, calculating based on quarterly changes without annualization, the U.S. economy grew by 7.4 percent this quarter, "by far the largest quarterly gain in records that began just after World War II," Carney further notes.
Prior to WWII, the largest quarterly gain recorded was in the 1950s, clocking in at 16.7 percent.
Though economists expect fourth quarter GDP to continue moving in a positive direction, overall movement for the year will still register as an economic contraction.
"The third-quarter growth follows a 31.4 percent decline in the second quarter, a 9 percent contraction on a quarterly basis, and a five percent annualized (1.3 percent non-annualized) contraction in the first quarter," Carney explains.
Trump takes credit for post-Covid economic rebound
In a White House announcement, President Donald Trump took credit for GDP expansion, citing his "reopen America safely" plan that was introduced back in April.
Prior to Covid-19, the president claims, his administration "built the greatest economy anywhere in the world ... and we're going to build it again."
At the time, forecasters had predicted a sharp economic contraction in the second quarter, which has since panned out the way they said it would. There was also the expectation that the third quarter would see only "tepid" growth.
However, Trump's "pro-growth policies that set a strong pre-pandemic foundation," the White House announcement says, helped our nation to recover and "exceed expectations."
"With the historic third-quarter growth, the United States in a single quarter has now recovered two-thirds of the economic output lost due to the pandemic during the first half of the year," the White House says.
"In the recovery from the 2008-09 recession, it took 4 times as long to regain the same share of lost economic output."
Though America's college students are unlikely to learn about any of this before amassing boatloads of debt, the key to getting the economy moving again was to open things back up and end the lockdowns, something that liberals continue to fight tooth and nail in the hopes that things will remain closed forever.
"The strong foundation of the pre-pandemic economy and the efficacy of the Trump Administration's efforts to provide direct economic aid to families and small businesses helped deliver record-setting growth that few predicted would occur earlier this year," the White House added.
"Our nation's economy is poised for continued expansion in the fourth quarter, and the strength of the recovery thus far is a testament to the fortitude and resilience of America’s workers and families."
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