You know that old joke about economists how they always say well on the one hand but then on the other hand

Yeah that but for consumers from American public media.

This is marketplace. In Los Angeles, I'm Ka, Rizdol 30 October today.

It is always to have you long, everybody.

We begin on this Wednesday with a question of balance. Our inquiry is

prompted by this morning's update on economic growth. Gross domestic product

we learned grew at an annualized rate of 2.8% in the third quarter of the year.

That makes it two-ish years of a textbook strong economy.

Why? Consumer spending mostly, which is whence the question of balance comes.

Because we want and honestly we need consumers to be spending keeping the economy strong, but not spending so much,

so as to drive up inflation again.

Marketplace is Kristen Schwab looks at finding that elusive sweet spot.

spoiler alert, the sweet spot for consumer spending?

There is no simple answer because the sweet spot depends on what else is happening in the economy.

Jonathan Parker is a finance professor at MIT.

Ideally, you just want balanced growth.

You want growth in investment and consumption.

Consumption, the consumer spending part, and investment, business spending, which has also been strong.

We produce stuff, we get stuff done and we put people to work.

A stark contrast to the deep pandemic days

when there were too many people chasing too few goods

and not enough workers to get it all done.

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