Strong MAGAnomic outcomes announced today as the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) releases the third-quarter GDP number, and it comes in strong at 3.4% growth. [Announcement Here] – [Data Table 1 Here]

I have modified Data Table 1.1.1 in the graphic below to highlight the key metrics.  As readers are well aware, imports are a deduction to GDP data.  Our national GDP is the sum value of all goods and services generated within the economy, minus imports.

[Table 1 data source]

Exports decreased 5.7%.  However, within the data you will note a third quarter massive surge in imports of 26.4% (goods), which led to a deduction impact of 3.32% in the overall GDP statistic [Table 1.5.2] As noted in the BEA review, “the largest contributor to imports was capital goods, except automotive.”

A 26% increase in capital goods is massive. I would anticipate that in addition to large industrial equipment, what we are witnessing in that import number is the AI-Data Center factor, this is the massive ‘compute’ need. The likely highest import value is on the data chips.

Think about it.  If there was no increase in imported goods and services to deduct from the growth rate, the U.S. economic growth rate would have been +6.7%.  Keep in mind the USA is already the largest economy in the world at $32.5 trillion.  So, a growth rate of 3.4% is a massive whole dollar increase in the U.S. economy.  The pie is much larger!

Overall investment into the economy grew at a whopping 19.4% versus the prior quarter.  The value of industrial equipment grew 20.9% over the prior quarter. We are investing in industrial production and setting the equipment in place for a manufacturing boom for the next several years.

In the background we still need to import industrial equipment and computer chips until we get the manufacturing systems in place (industrial equipment) to begin producing the outputs domestically.  But industrial investment at this scale is exceptional for the long-term growth of the economy.

Yahoo – The U.S. economy expanded faster than economists expected during the third quarter of 2026, according to figures released Thursday by the Commerce Department. Growth was supported by increases in investment, consumer spending and government expenditure, although a decline in exports partially offset those gains.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 3.4% in the third quarter, compared with growth of 2.2% in the second quarter.

Economists had forecast an expansion of 3.1%, meaning the reported figure exceeded expectations by 0.3 percentage points.

The Commerce Department reported that real GDP growth reached 3.4% during the July-to-September period, compared with 2.2% in the preceding quarter.

The increase represented an acceleration of 1.2 percentage points between the second and third quarters.

The third-quarter result also exceeded economists’ consensus forecast of 3.1%.

Real GDP measures the value of goods and services produced in the economy after adjusting for changes in prices.

The latest figures indicated that U.S. economic activity expanded at a faster rate during the third quarter than in the previous three-month period. (more)