If you throw all the products we buy and the services we use in one basket, then add up the price tag, that's the Gross Domestic Product, which is the primary metric economists use to assess the economic health of a country or region.

The easy part of calculating GDP is the calculation itself: C+I+G+(X-M)=GDP. Got it? No? Well, add Consumption, Investment by companies, Government purchases, and then take the product of eXports (calling it 'E' would lack sexiness) minus iMports ('I' was taken). Viola! GDP.

Still don't get it? Well, knowing the components helps. Consumption is the biggest component, and it's a tally of the cost of all the goods and services we buy. Investment is what companies spend on the real assets they own, plus the value of the inventory that we haven't gobbled up through consumption. Government purchases are what the Feds pay money for (whether it be highways or fighter jets, though big social programs, like welfare, aren't counted). And then we calculate the difference between the goods and services we¿re sending to other countries and the stuff we're bringing in.

Good. That explains it, except there's a catch. Inflation has a habit of distorting the numbers, so economists talk about either Nominal GDP or Real GDP. In fact, Real GDP isn't necessarily "real" for most folks, since it takes any inflation out. Nominal GDP includes the effects of inflation. (There's something called the implicit price deflator which is a calculation using the two, but we'll spare you the details.)

So, now that we know GDP, why do we want to? Well, it's good to compare different markets. And watching the trend shows whether a given economy is growing (good), stagnating (not so good), or shrinking (very not so good). When GDP goes down two quarters in a row, we're officially in a recession.

For the record, GDP is released at the end of each month, with most reporting ¿preliminary¿ data for the previous month. But you won't get final GDP numbers for the fourth quarter of a year until the very end of the first quarter of the next year. After all, it's not an easy number to calculate.

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Friday, July 25, 2008

USEC Inc. Submits Application for DOE Loan Guarantee

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BETHESDA, Md., Jul 25, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) ----USEC Inc. (NYSE:USU) has submitted its application for a loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to fund construction of the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

DOE invited nuclear energy projects to submit loan guarantee applications on June 30, 2008. The omnibus fiscal year 2008 appropriations act authorized DOE to issue $38.5 billion worth of loan guarantees through the end of fiscal year 2009, with $2 billion for advanced "front-end" nuclear fuel cycle facilities.

USEC believes the American Centrifuge Plant (ACP) fully qualifies under the loan guarantee selection criteria established by DOE. Among other things, the project represents the early commercial use of a new or significantly improved technology, and it significantly reduces emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases.

A DOE loan guarantee is currently viewed by USEC as the path for obtaining debt financing to complete the commercial plant. USEC will work closely with DOE to provide the information needed to evaluate USEC's application expeditiously and to seek prompt action from DOE.

USEC has submitted part I of its application and expects to submit part II of its application soon. DOE had set a deadline of September 29, 2008, for part I applications and December 2, 2008, for part II applications for front-end nuclear fuel cycle facilities.

USEC is demonstrating and deploying the American Centrifuge to provide the dependable, long-term, U.S.-owned nuclear fuel production capability needed to support the country's nuclear power plants. The American Centrifuge technology is based on U.S. gas centrifuge technology originally developed by DOE but with significant design, material and manufacturing improvements incorporated by USEC. USEC received a license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct and operate the ACP in April 2007 and commenced construction shortly thereafter.

In line with expectations stated earlier this year, USEC's application is based on an estimated project budget of $3.5 billion. This amount includes project spending to date but does not include financing costs or financial assurance, which would be covered under a loan guarantee.

If its application is approved, USEC expects the loan guarantee would be funded through the Federal Financing Bank, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

USEC's loan guarantee application outlines a number of important policy, creditworthiness and commercial aspects of the ACP that USEC believes strongly support approving its loan guarantee request.

USEC has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help America rebuild its nuclear industrial manufacturing base as the country increasingly turns to nuclear power as the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions-free, baseload electricity. As America's only commercial uranium enrichment facility using U.S.-owned centrifuge technology, the ACP will play an important role in America's energy security and national security.

USEC Inc., a global energy company, is a leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.

Forward Looking Statements:

This news release contains forward-looking statements (within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) that involve risks and uncertainty. For USEC, particular risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: success of the demonstration and deployment of our American Centrifuge technology including our ability to meet our performance targets and schedule for the American Centrifuge Plant; the cost of the American Centrifuge Plant and our ability to timely secure a loan guarantee or other financing; changes to, or termination of, our contracts with the U.S. government and changes in U.S. government priorities and the availability of government funding, including loan guarantees; and other risks and uncertainties discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K/A and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, which are available on our website www.usec.com. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements except as required by law.

SOURCE: USEC Inc.

USEC Inc.
   Media: Elizabeth Stuckle, 301-564-3399 or Investors: Steven Wingfield, 301-564-3354

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