For the 1st time since the middle of 2014, the U.S. economy has sustained 3% growth for two consecutive quarters, providing strong momentum into next year. The current Conference Board forecast calls for 2.8 percent growth during the final quarter of 2017 and 2.5% growth in 2018.
Real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the second quarter of 2017, according to the "advance" estimate released by the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP increased 1.2 percent (revised).
“Big American companies are maximizing their profits instead of investing in their people and future projects.” That’s the blunt, provocative first sentence of a recent commentary by Henry Blodget, CEO of Business Insider. Blodget argues, “this behavior is contributing to record income inequality in the country and starving the primary engine of U.S. economic growth—the vast American middle class—of purchasing power.”
