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The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in eleven years as the U.S. Commerce Department announced on Tuesday it revised upward its estimate of the Gross Domestic Product to 5% from 3.9% in the 3rd quarter.

The Washington Post reported this economic boom was reminiscent of the economic growth in the 90’s while that period was driven by a surge in commerce unleashed by computers and the Internet, this expansion has many drivers. They include brisk consumer spending, low levels of personal debt, plunging oil prices, a soaring stock market and a federal government that for the first time in years is encouraging growth rather than detracting from it.

This economic good news contrast differently with the economies around the globe, as China, Europe is seeing their economies contract and Japan is mired in a recession.

With the release of this unexpected report the Stock Market surged to record levels and with the unemployment level down to 5.8% in November and 321,000 jobs created last month the trend looks for continued productivity for the economy.

“We’ve had this two-steps-forward-one-step-back kind of expansion — a good quarter and a reversion — but it seems like this is different this time,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist at the Bank of the West.

The Post also added in its reporting consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of gross domestic product, has emerged as the economy’s driving force, increasing in the third quarter by 3.2 percent. Though incomes have stagnated for years among the middle and lower classes, there were nascent signs of wage growth last month, and households have reduced the bad debt that held them back in the wake of the financial crisis.

This will be the challenging aspect for the president as he prepares to give his State of the Union address next month, he will tout the continued growth of the economy, but this really hasn’t impacted Main Street.

The Middle class hasn’t seen a rise in wages in a number of years, and the president must walk a fine line on this.

Politico reported on this element, the White House planning reflects a dilemma for the president on the economy: With the Dow breaking 18,000 on Tuesday, buoyed by the fastest gross domestic product growth in more than a decade, Obama wants to tout the bigger picture successes without looking insensitive to people who are still struggling. Yet he doesn’t want to ignore the bullish data and miss an opportunity to tell the story of the American economic recovery.

Politico continued, but for now, the growing pile of economic data that Obama and his aides believe demonstrate his success digging the country out after the financial collapse hasn’t broken through, and they know it. Wages haven’t kept up, prices keep rising, and Obama seems to be presiding over a period in which Americans’ lives are getting more difficult.

“You can’t convince people that their paycheck is going farther than it was — and you shouldn’t try. That would be a big mistake. What you can do is try to affect people’s optimism for the long term,” said a senior Obama adviser. “If we can make people understand that there are reasons for a bright future and the president has a plan to address what ails them, then that will be real progress.”

The question will the proposals offered by the president really impact the lives of most Americans, or has the president just been lucky so far.

The quarterly revisions by the Commerce Department were for economic activity during the summer before the huge drop in gas prices giving the economy an unexpected boost.

More work needs to be done, but the American public will feel better about the state of the economy when they see their own economic wellbeing improve and not just Wall Street.