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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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

McGraw-Hill Broadcasting Names Jeffrey Block Vice President, General Manager of KGTV, San Diego

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SAN DIEGO, July 16, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----McGraw-Hill Broadcasting, a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, today announced the appointment of Jeffrey Block as vice president and general manager of KGTV, the ABC-affiliate station in San Diego, and its Spanish-language Azteca America affiliate, effective Aug. 4. In this position, Mr. Block will be responsible for the strategy and day-to-day editorial and business operations of KGTV, Azteca America San Diego, and the station's digital properties.

"Jeff brings to KGTV more than 25 years of leadership in news and sales in competitive broadcast markets, leading initiatives to monetize digital properties, achieving strong growth in ratings and revenues, and adopting new media technologies," said Darrell K. Brown, president of McGraw-Hill Broadcasting. "We are excited to have him lead the KGTV team."

Mr. Block, 55, held several key positions over 18 years at Cox Television in San Francisco-Oakland, including vice president of digital strategy, where he developed and led the strategies for the 15-station group to monetize digital properties; general manager of KTVU; and general sales manager of the station. Most recently, Mr. Block has been an independent media consultant whose projects included work in downloaded video distribution; digital distribution network for program production, syndication and advertising; and marketing web publishing products to media.

Mr. Block holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan.

About McGraw-Hill Broadcasting

Since 1972, McGraw-Hill Broadcasting, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, has been delivering local viewing audiences dependable news and information, entertainment and community service. With access to over 8 million people in San Diego and Kern County, California, Denver, and Colorado Springs, Colorado and Central Indiana, McGraw-Hill Broadcasting operates KGTV San Diego (ABC), KERO-TV Bakersfield (ABC), KMGH-TV Denver (ABC), WRTV Indianapolis (ABC) and Azteca America affiliates in Denver, Colorado Springs, San Diego and Bakersfield. With Cable news channels, high definition broadcasts and local news websites in every market in which we operate, McGraw-Hill Broadcasting is a leader in local broadcast innovation.

SOURCE McGraw-Hill Broadcasting

http://www.mcgraw-hill.com

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