A timely economic boost for the Obama campaign was delivered to the president by way of unexpectedly robust third quarter growth. Official figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed Gross Domestic Product (GDP) climbing by an annualized 2%.
The welcome news is somewhat surprising given that the drought seen in the US (the most crippling in a half century) is expected to have scraped 0.4% from the GDP number. While the news is encouraging it is thought that the GDP rise is at least partly due to the increased government spending – the FED is buying up about $40 billion in mortgage debt each month.