The U.S. economy grew at its fastest rate since records began in the third quarter, reversing much – but by no means all – of the output lost in the second quarter under the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The Commerce Department said gross domestic product grew at an annualized 33.1% in the quarter, after contracting by 31% in the second quarter. Analysts had expected an expansion of 31.9%. U.S. stock futures turned positive on the news, with the Dow 30 futures contract rising 110 points in response, erasing earlier losses for the session. The dollar also strengthened to $1.1706 against the euro, albeit the latter was hit by the European Central Bank signaling after its council meeting that it will likely ease monetary policy again in December. The figures, while spectacular, are essentially backward-looking and exaggerated by the habit of annualizing GDP data. They reflect the reopening of many businesses in the summer after government-mandated stay-at-home orders had crippled both manufacturing and services output in the spring. “The general population judge living standards by their personal experience, not abstract concepts,” said Paul Donovan, chief economist with UBS Global Wealth Management, in a morning podcast. An arguably better indication of current developments in the economy came from the weekly jobless claims numbers, which were released at the same time. Initial claims for jobless benefits fell by more than expected to their lowest since March, at 751,000, while continuing claims fell to 7.756 million. Nick Note: you cannot fall off the basement floor. It is obvious the masses will not tolerate another total national lock down. And its not the way to do it. Isolate the outbreaks, practice contact tracing. You cannot preform brain surgery with a machete. Reality is high risk people like baby boomers need to isolate as much as possible. And lose the toilet paper masks. Go to a nanofilter and you go a long way to protecting yourself. Disinfect and Filter you in house air with a clean room, biolab filter system. As a point in fact we have the technology to turn your forced air system into a viral filter. And if you do not have forced air we will soon be introducing room air filter systems. We are negotiating with manufactures as we speak…..