Dear Diary,
John said he's going to kick my ass. I'm supposed to meet him and some other kids by the flagpole after school.
I've been worried about the economy lately, what, with all the unemployed people and such. Luckily, I happened upon the ABC News site tonight, and found that all is well. Sheesh... that was a close one, Diary!
Here is what Ramona Schindelheim, ABC News' Business editor, had to say about the recovery today.
Oct. 25-- There is absolutely no doubt that the economy improved over the summer -- fueled by low interest rates, cash from refinancing and cash from the child tax credit.
On Thursday, we'll get the government's preliminary estimate on how fast the economy grew in the third quarter, measured by the gross domestic product. And everyone believes it will show the fastest growth in more than a year, maybe longer.
Economists are now forecasting that the economy grew at an annual rate of between 4 percent and 7 percent in July, August and September. A very strong showing indeed!
It looks like consumers spent as much as two-thirds of the money they got from the tax cut and saved about a third of it. Capital spending picked up and, unexpectedly, there was no deterioration in the trade deficit (imports and exports kept pace with each other).
Looking ahead, economists say the strong growth we saw in the third quarter has slowed and we're likely to see fourth quarter GDP at around 3 percent (still respectable!).
Now, I'm no economist, Diary, but when a journalist uses a lot of exclamation points, you know it's something to be excited about!!!