Comments on: Week of September 21,2009. What can GDP tell us about the economy?

By: cuba1990

cuba1990 — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:29:43 +0000

GDP tells allot about our economy, but at the same time it’s not much because, it doesn’t tell us how the job market is doing and that is one of the most essential parts of our economy.

By: Matt Walsh

Matt Walsh — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:13:52 +0000

Short term ecomonic stimulus packages may look good on paper for now, but they are exactly that, “short-term.” As the unemployment, and the GDP are both good but not entirely accurate measures of the economy, there is simply no way our recession can be completely over with percentages that high. As the topic claims that unempolyment rates are likely to stay around and above 10% through 2010, things are looking horribly dismal in that regard. Instead of temporary programs like the former “Cash For Clunckers” program, the government needs to focus on a way to create long term stable jobs and get Americans who were laid off back to work without interfering so much that they solely run our free market economy. Regardless of the way that this problem is solved, I can not imagine there is any quick solution that could show great results in only one year, this is going to take a good amount of time.

By: Seacoast08

Seacoast08 — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:46:36 +0000

It is possible that a recession can be over and unemployment can remain at about 10% even after 12 to 18 months. According to what President Barrack Obama stated to the CNN’s “state of the Union” program, the signs are all positive towards the economy growing. The only thing he was unsure about was that the unemployment rate might worsen. In my opinion, GDP is not a good measure of economic growth. It would be better to include the unemployment and national disposal income growth to determine the economy’s recovery. It seems that the President included that but at the same time he stated that the economy is recovering. This led me to believe that unemployment and national disposal income growth is a better source to distinguish the economy and its getting better or getting worse.

By: Default

Default — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:32:46 +0000

According to the deffinition of GDP a country can be out of a recession but still have high unemployment rates. This is a strong indicator that GDP is a bad way of measuring a country’s economy. All of the articles that I have read about GDP describe it as a very complex number that can only indicate if a country’s economy is expanding or contracting. Even if a country’s GDP was to change that does not mean, at all that unemployment has to change. This is a perfect example of why GDP is not a good way of measuring a country’s complete economic state.

By: avalanche324

avalanche324 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:46:48 +0000

GDP can be a somewhat accurate way of measuring economic growth. Though it has many flaws as well such as being very vague in its measuring. With this in hand it doesn’t give companies and employers complete comfort in hiring new employees. So in turn the unemployment rate most likely will not rise. I feel as if the recession may soon come to an end but we are still in one. The after math of this recession will most likely go on for sometime until unemployment rates are low, consumer market increases and people feel comfortable spending their money again. That is why i feel GDP needs to be more accurate to speed up the ending of a recession.

By: amielf

amielf — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:43:26 +0000

The recession ending doesn’t mean that unemployment will stop. It only means that less people are losing their job and that the economy is doing a little better. The way they measure on when the recession is over is by looking at the GDP. If the GDP starts going up then the recession is over. I think that GDP is a good way to measure a country’s overall performance.

By: itsz-Jniice

itsz-Jniice — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:37:42 +0000

The Recession may be over but doesn’t mean that unemployment rate has to go down, it will remain high due to the insecurity that companies have. Since many companies cut down there expenses, companies won’t hire or buy supplies as long as consumers aren’t spending. GDP could be very reliable for unemployment rate to decrease because GDP is the total market value of goods and services produced in an economy. If the amount of goods and services increases, there could be a very high chance that companies need to rehire employees, which will then increase the nation disposable income. The country will not completely be out of a recession until unemployment rate decrease, and consumers spend more money so GDP can increase.

By: kigwekal01

kigwekal01 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:28:51 +0000

GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product. Also, it is the final value of all goods and services produced in one year. The recession is possibly over but unemployment rates are still rising in the United States. Even though GDP is a good tool for measuring economic growth, it is not always accurate. Analyst and Politicians shown on CNBC predicts that the economy will be a whole lot worst in the next ten years.

By: jah728

jah728 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:13:59 +0000

I think that all of these things have an enormous affect on economic growth. While a rising GDP is extremely important because it is definitely a good sign. But the fact that unemployment staying about 10% COULD be a bad thing. I say could be because it could mean that 10% of this country is still lazy, now i know that people arent usually at fault for being on unemployment. Another bad sign about unemployment is that a lot of people on unemployment know that many of the jobs they could get would pay them just as much if not less than their weekly “unearned” checks. This means that companies still cannot afford to pay these people decent money even if more money is coming in. Now disposable income can’t go up until the economy is growing. So if that is staying the same then things aren’t going well either. Growing GDP just means people are buying more and there are many things that could cause that.

By: Amaritta

Amaritta — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:27:05 +0000

No, I do not think the GDP alone is a good measurement of economic growth. Job losses are usually proportional to the decline in GDP. The unemployment rate is not only one of the causes of American’s struggles with money today, but it is a main cause of the recession. Unemployed people do not spend money where it is not needed. The country’s real economic growth should be measured solely on American’s ability to afford the high cost of living today, given the opportunity to become employed.