(Image Source: Hazim Anzawi)


BY BLAKE HANSON


It was much-needed news for the economy Thursday morning-- new numbers show U.S. growth nearly doubled in the third quarter. Fox News has more...

“All eyes are on the economy and brand new numbers just out. First up, our nations Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, which measures whether our economy is growing or shrinking. The latest data, shows the economy grew modestly over the summer at a rate of 2.5%.”

Commerce Department numbers show the economy grew just 1.4% in the second quarter, and only 0.4% in the first quarter of this year. So the question is: just how good of a sign is this? The New York Times puts it into perspective...           

“The growth, however, is still paltry — not brisk enough to recover the ground lost in the economic bust, lower unemployment or even dispel fears of a second recession. But the report offered a small helping of reassurance.”

There was a lot of economic conflict during the third quarter -- you might remember one in particular: the debt ceiling debate. CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin talks with MSNBC about the impact of a raised ceiling...

“More optimistic than pessimistic, and optimistic frankly that the number wasn’t worse over the summer, especially as we had this debt ceiling debate and so much of this conversation you hear from CEOs, about ‘there’s not enough confidence’ ‘there’s all this uncertainty’ and to see the GDP number come out where it is actually gave me some confidence that maybe we are in a better place than we thought.”

Still, an economist quoted in the Washington Post isn’t so optimistic.

“There’s just nothing to say about 2.5 percent growth, beyond: The recovery has been postponed another quarter.”