The Lowdown on the Third-Quarter Slowdown

Everybody thinks the U.S. economy slowed down in the third quarter. They don’t agree on how much.

The Commerce Department will release its first read on third-quarter gross domestic product on Thursday. For what it is worth, the median estimate among economists polled by The Wall Street Journal is for a 2.8% annual growth rate. That compares with a 6.7% rate in the second quarter.