Trump's Commerce Secretary Claims 'All' Americans 'Are Going To Earn 4.3% More Money' Because the Economy Grew by 4.3%

[Wiz Imp]

15. Thing is, he knows what he is saying is a lie. Trump could say and believe it.

But Lutnick knows that what he is saying isn't true, but he thinks lying to the world is perfectly acceptable.

Explanation for why the GDP number is wildly misleading (You'll notice that none of the primary reasons for the increase in GDP as outlined below actually do anything to improve the economic conditions for most Americans. AI Spending and Defense spending is only helping people who work for these small number of companies. Imports decreasing because of tariffs doesn't help Americans because when they replace them with American made products, the cost is higher.):

1. AI spending accounts for roughly half of the increase

2. Defense spending is helping to buoy the economy as well

3. Imports have continued to decrease while exports have increased slightly driving the number higher due to the way this is calculated

4. Inflation is persistent and the bottom half of the country (or more potentially) is still struggling while the affluent are driving consumer spending to a sufficient level to increase GDP.

This last point is one worth looking at a little further. The BEA reported that most of this spending came from healthcare purchases. So it seems likely the a good deal of the affluent spending is coming from older Americans who have benefited the most from the explosion of asset prices while the rest of the country struggles, especially if those Americans aren't having their parents helping them out.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/1ptwrl7/us_gdp_grew_at_a_blistering_43_pace_in_the_third/

Government spending is also up which is artificially increasing the GDP.

GDP = C + I + G + (X − M)

where C = consumption, I = investment, G = government spending X = exports and M = imports.