Press Releases

This morning’s shockingly excellent Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) advance estimate of GDP for the fourth quarter and year 2023 showed better-than-expected economic growth and two consecutive quarters of Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) inflation data at the Fed’s two percent target.

This is just the latest in a string of terrific news showing strong growth in the American economy to begin 2024:

Today’s GDP and inflation report:

CNBC – The U.S. economy grew at blistering 3.3% pace in Q4 while inflation pulled back

Wall Street Journal – What Recession? Growth Ended Up Accelerating in 2023

New York Times’ Ben Casselman: “G.D.P. is now above where the CBO expected *before* the pandemic struck. And yes, that's adjusted for inflation.”

Washington Post’s Heather Long: Key drivers of 2023’s boom economy “were Biden policy driven”

Wall Street Journal – Inflation Is on Target—According to the Fed’s Preferred Measure, at Least

WSJ’s Nick Timiraos: “2023 ended with two quarters of core PCE inflation at an annualized rate of 2.0%”

Harvard economist Jason Furman: “We have landed softly.”

More strong economic news this month:

Wall Street Journal – Americans Are Suddenly a Lot More Upbeat About the Economy

“Consumer sentiment gauge posted the largest two-month gain since 1991”

Axios – Chart: Wage growth is beating inflation

The Guardian – Wall Street notches fresh records as S&P 500 and Dow Jones close at all-time high

NPR – U.S. unemployment has been under 4% for the longest streak since the Vietnam War

Marketplace – The economy added 2.7 million jobs in 2023

Stars and Stripes – Veteran jobless rate in US fell to lowest mark in over 2 decades during 2023

CBS – Gas prices fall under 3 bucks a gallon at majority of U.S. stations

CNN – Mortgage rates drop to lowest level since May

Axios – Americans are actually pretty happy with their finances

Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), Senior House Democrat on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee and member of the House Committee on Ways and Means:

“Every week the outlook for the U.S. economy looks better and stronger. The dire predictions of recession and decline were clearly wrong, but better still is the growing certainty that we are headed for a soft landing that normalizes inflation without a sharp increase in employment or weakened economic growth. Rapidly rising consumer sentiment shows that the American people are feeling the benefits of this growth and expressing them in improved optimism.

“Historic job growth has been matched by rising wages, the longest run with less than four percent unemployment in five decades, and falling inflation measures. Today’s GDP report shows clearly that policies championed by President Biden and congressional Democrats contributed directly to these positive trends. I will be working with my colleagues to help sustain that progress.”