by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
This is the biggest part of the US economy. Or why we can all just sue each other to boost GDP.
Services-producing industries – not including government services – dominate the US economy, amounting to the equivalent of 70% of overall GDP by value added, and to 80% of the private sector economy. As long as the services-producing industries grow enough, it’s tough for the US economy to fall into a recession. And in the third quarter, according to the Commerce Department’s Quarterly Selected Services Estimates, revenues by the services-producing industries rose 4.9% from a year ago, to a record $4.11 trillion (not seasonally adjusted). For the first three quarters of the year, revenues rose 5.2% to $12.1 trillion: