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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Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Entercom Partners with FlyTunes to Deliver Mobile Radio Streams

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Comtex

LANCASTER, Pa., July 1, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----Today FlyTunes announced that Entercom Communications Corp. (NYSE: ETM), one of the top 5 radio broadcasting groups in the U.S., has joined the FlyTunes content network. Starting immediately with its affiliates in San Francisco (KOIT - KDFC - KBWF) and Seattle (KNDD - KMTT - KISW - KKWF), Entercom stations will be available in the new "Cities" section of the FlyTunes Guide. Additional stations in other Entercom markets will roll out on FlyTunes over the next 90 days.

The FlyTunes network is the first content network specifically designed to deliver radio, video and podcasts to smart phones such as the Apple iPhone. The network has experienced explosive growth in users and in content offerings since its launch in January 2008.

According to Entercom Senior Vice President, Digital, Sandy Smallens, "Entercom takes pride in being a pioneer in providing digital options to its millions of listeners around the country. FlyTunes is clearly a leader in delivering high-quality mobile broadcast streams, and we are excited to be the first terrestrial broadcast group to join this rapidly growing network."

"We are very proud that a respected broadcast company like Entercom has partnered with FlyTunes to help deliver their stations to mobile listeners," said FlyTunes CEO Sam Abadir. "Mobile devices present a completely new paradigm for content and ad delivery, very different from traditional broadcast radio and TV, and clearly Entercom understands the value of the medium and the potential of our network."

Entercom's stream hosting provider Liquid Compass is partnering with FlyTunes to facilitate the launch. Liquid Compass will incorporate FlyTunes' FlyCast server software throughout their Content Delivery Network, which will ensure quality, continuous stream delivery and mobile compatibility for Entercom's listening audience.

With the addition of Entercom's stations, FlyTunes offers over 650 channels of music, local and national news, top local personalities, weather, video, and podcasts to smart phone listeners in 130 countries around the world. FlyTunes provides one of the only ways for mobile listeners to take their favorite local stations with them.

FlyTunes is completely free - new users can sign up at http://www.FlyTunes.fm.

SOURCE FlyTunes

http://www.FlyTunes.fm

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