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.

Home / Markets / Industries / Media

Friday, June 27, 2008

Dow Jones Hires Award-Winning Business Editor and Columnist, Al Lewis, to Join Dow Jones Newswires Editorial Team

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NEW YORK, June 27, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----Dow Jones & Company, a News Corporation company (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV), today announced that Al Lewis, the award-winning editor/columnist, blogger and television commentator for The Denver Post, has joined the Dow Jones Newswires editorial team. Mr. Lewis will begin his duties on June 30 and will write a wide-ranging new business column that offers an unconventional perspective on business, companies and the people who run them.

"Al Lewis will make an impressive addition to our roster of talent," said Neal Lipschutz, senior vice president and managing editor, Dow Jones Newswires. "He combines a thorough knowledge of business and finance issues with a personal and entertaining style. We are confident his commentary will provide real value to our customers."

Mr. Lipschutz continued, "The addition of columnist Al Lewis is representative of our commitment at Dow Jones Newswires to increase our investment in relevant, timely and insightful financial and business news and analysis. This comes at a time many other news organizations are cutting back. Our global commitment to grow, including in a variety of languages, also is demonstrated by the recent acquisition of Betten Financial News BV, the Dutch- language news service."

Prior to joining Dow Jones, Mr. Lewis was a columnist and business editor for The Denver Post. Prior to that, he reported on business for the Rocky Mountain News. He also served a business editor for The Gazette in Colorado Springs and editor and reporter at The Amarillo Globe-News in Texas. He has won the Society of American Business Editors and Writers "Best in Business" award for columns published in both 2007 and 2006.

Lewis has a master's degree in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois and a bachelor's degree in political science and journalism from MacMurray College.

ABOUT DOW JONES

Dow Jones & Company (www.dowjones.com) is a News Corporation company (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV; www.newscorp.com). Dow Jones is a leading provider of global business news and information services. Its Consumer Media Group publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and the Far Eastern Economic Review. Its Enterprise Media Group includes Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Factiva, Dow Jones Client Solutions, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Financial Information Services. Its Local Media Group operates community-based information franchises. Dow Jones owns 50% of SmartMoney and 33% of STOXX Ltd. and provides news content to radio stations in the U.S.

SOURCE Dow Jones & Company

http://www.dowjones.com

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