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

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

R.H. Donnelley Announces Conference Call to Discuss Second Quarter Results

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CARY, N.C., July 15, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ ----R.H. Donnelley Corporation (NYSE: RHD), one of the nation's leading Yellow Pages and online local commercial search companies, will release its second quarter 2008 results on Wednesday, July 30 at approximately 7:30 a.m. (ET), which will be posted on the company's Web site at http://www.rhd.com. The company invites its investors and other interested parties to participate in a conference call at 10:00 a.m. (ET) on the same day to hear commentary regarding results. David C. Swanson, chairman and CEO, and Steven M. Blondy, executive vice president and CFO, will host the call. Remarks will be followed by a question and answer period.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060731/NYM044LOGO)

Individuals within the United States can access the call by dialing 888-387-9606 -- others should dial 517-645-6055. The pass code for the call is "RHD." In order to ensure a prompt start time, please dial into the call by 9:50 a.m. (ET). A replay of the conference call can be accessed from within the United States by dialing 800-879-6405 and internationally by dialing 402-220-4745. There is no pass code for the replay, which will be available through August 13, 2008. In addition, a live Web cast will be available on RHD's Web site at http://www.rhd.com, and an archived version will be available for up to one year.

For further information, please contact R.H. Donnelley Investor Relations at 800-497-6329.

Helping Local Businesses Reach More Customers

R.H. Donnelley's interactive offerings are essential to its Triple Play(TM) solution suite -- an integrated set of products and services that efficiently and effectively extend the marketing reach of local businesses. Spanning multiple media platforms -- print Yellow Pages directories, DexKnows.com(TM) search site and the major search engines (e.g., Yahoo!(R) and Google(R)) via the Company's Dex Search Marketing(R) tools -- Triple Play delivers the advertisements of local businesses to a wider set of ready-to-buy consumers.

About R.H. Donnelley

R.H. Donnelley connects businesses and consumers through its portfolio of print and interactive marketing solutions. Small- and medium-sized businesses look to R.H. Donnelley's experienced team of marketing consultants to help them grow their companies and drive sales leads. Consumers depend on the Company's reliable, local business content to deliver the most relevant search results when they are seeking local goods and services. For more information, visit http://www.rhd.com and http://www.DexKnows.com.

SOURCE R.H. Donnelley Corporation

http://www.rhd.com

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