EVEN MORE ECONOMIC GOOD NEWS - GDP 2ND QTR 2017

Glory be, but GDP is revised upward for the 2nd quarter of 2017 to 3.0%!*  Warren buffet, however, is a spoil sport and says that it doesn't feel like 3% to him, more like 2%..**

Gross domestic product increased at a 3.0 percent annual rate in the April-June period, the Commerce Department said in its second estimate on Wednesday. The upward revision from the 2.6 percent pace reported last month reflected robust consumer spending as well as strong business investment.

Growth last quarter was the strongest since the first quarter of 2015 and followed a 1.2 percent pace in the January-March period. 

...........................................................................

Retail sales and business spending data so far suggest the economy maintained its stamina early in the third quarter. Other data [the ADP National Employment Report] on Wednesday showed private employers ramped up hiring in August, adding 237,000 jobs to their payrolls. That was up from 201,000 jobs in July.

Click on figure to enlarge)

Consumer spending, which makes up more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy, grew at a 3.3 percent rate, the fastest in a year, reflecting more spending on motor vehicles, cellphones, housing and utilities than previously estimated.

That was revised up from the 2.8 percent pace reported in July and accounted for the bulk of the pickup in economic growth in the second quarter.

But stronger consumer spending came at the expense of saving amid sluggish wage gains. The saving rate slipped to 3.7 percent from 3.9 percent in the first quarter. The second-quarter saving rate was previously reported at 3.8 percent.

Households cannot, however, continue to rely on savings indefinitely to fund their consumption. This raises doubts on the sustainability of the robust pace of consumer spending.

* https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/30/us-revised-second-quarter-gdp.html
** https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/30/warren-buffett-this-doesnt-feel-like-a-3-percent-gdp-economy.html