US economy beats forecasts to grow at 3.4% rate in third quarter

jqpabc123

Driven by massive debt being used for AI/data center build out. https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2026/10/02/insid...

sparse-Matrix

I cam here to say, "Let me guess: It's all the AI bubble"

clarle

I'm trying to not just think about myself being in the tech bubble and all, but a lot of what I've been seeing across many industries are people being laid off or unable to find work. This includes software engineers in many of the recent layoffs, as well as artists, photographers, and animators I know who have had a significant drop in typical advertising work with the advent of AI. Many of them have switched to gig work like Uber or Doordash, which makes them considered "employed" in employment surveys. I do understand why the "economy" might grow - reducing expenses while maintaining revenue can definitely do that, but I don't know how long something like this can be sustainable. Eventually you do need consumers to purchase things in the economy and not just circular financing of compute. I wonder what the final end state is going to look like in a few years.

Avicebron

It'll trickle down, any day now

asgh199

The paper economy. Apparently higher energy prices are an economic stimulant, so if you double the gas prices another time maybe you get 6.8% growth in Q4.

segmondy

Do we still trust the data coming out from this admin?

qlte

I love how increased healthcare spending always makes it into the top line of the strongest drivers of growth and example of consumer "willingness" to keep spending. Less affluent Americans in particular have been squeezed by higher prices. But Wednesday’s data showed that on the whole, American consumers continued to splash out in the third quarter, with spending on healthcare, food and accommodation rising.

vinyl7

Is this inflation adjusted?