Dive summary:

• As if the "fiscal cliff" were not enough to have everyone edgy about prospects for 2013, we are being told that we should not be happy about an upward revision to the GDP growth in the country last quarter – from 2% to 2.7%.
• The problem, analysts say, is that too much of the growth in the third quarter came from companies building up inventories, 77 of the 270 points.
• If the things now sitting on shelves and in warehouses does not sell vigorously so that vendors buy more of them, fourth-quarter figures might be weak or the start of 2013 may be puny just as tax hikes and spending cuts may be coming into effect.

From the article:

How important were inventories to GDP? Excluding them, real final sales grew 1.9% last quarter, down from the 2.1% reported earlier and not much better than the 1.7% rate of the second quarter. ...