Scroll down about a quarter of the page to the commentary area. They have a section that tries to make sense of GDP results.
And the summary is?
Since no other major developed country has credible growth data anywhere near the 5% ball park, how can US economic growth remain a statistical outlier over an extended period of time?
There are at lease a few obvious and plausible answers to the above questions:
— The Fed knows that these numbers misrepresent the true health of the economy — either now or in the near future.
— US households (especially at the median) are not participating meaningfully in the reported growth — which is probably happening almost exclusively on the far side of the “wealth divide.”
— The US is benefiting globally (in an almost predatory fashion) from having the strongest of currencies and the safest of investment havens.
Unfortunately, the latter two answers carry with them destabilizing social consequences that are far worse (internally and externally) than the mere possibility of yet another economic slowdown — currently utterly unforeseen by the BEA.
From our perspective we actually hope that the Fed knows far more than is evident in this latest happy BEA report.
“It’s a miracle!!!”