As usual, just about everything we’ve heard about the
economy is wrong. To start, the 5.0 percent growth number must be
understood against a darker backdrop: The economy actually shrank at a
2.1 percent annual rate in the first quarter. If we take the first three
quarters of the year together, the average growth rate was a more
modest 2.5 percent.
-- Dean Baker, "Why You Shouldn’t Believe What You Hear About the US Economy" (CounterPunch).