The Department of Commerce recently provided its latest glimpse on the state of the U.S. economy. In the October-December fourth quarter, the economy grew at an annualized rate of 6.9%. This exceeded Wall Street’s forecast of 5.7% and was well above the third quarter’s pace of just 2.3%. For the full-year 2021, the nation’s rate of economic growth was 5.7%, the fastest annual rate since 1984.
The continued strength in the U.S. economy was somewhat expected. Since the initial fallout from the global pandemic in March and April 2020, the American economy has been quick to recover. Our post-pandemic recovery has been fueled in large part by the introduction of vaccines and the more than $5 trillion in government stimulus money. Unfortunately, an inherent consequence of this massive stimulus money is rising inflation, which now stands at 7%, a 40-year high.
Though celebrated by Wall Street, the surprisingly robust…
