GDP

GDP, Thursday’s term du jour, stands for Gross Domestic Product. It’s the total value of the goods and services produced in a country for a specified period of time.

The GDP for the U.S. for the third quarter (July, August and September) was down 3/10ths of a percent in real dollars from the previous quarter. Less GDP is not good, and is one serious indicator of the R-word, “RECESSION.” (The actual current dollar value for the quarter was $14.429 trillion.)

The GDP consists of four components (and many sub-divisions, etc.). The four are (1) consumption (what you and I buy), (2) investment (what businesses spend to increase their capacity or inventory), (3) government spending and (4) net exports (exports minus imports, because imports are part of some other country’s GDP).

In this past quarter it was consumption that changed most markedly, dropping at an annual rate of 3.1%. And durable goods — refrigerators and cars — dropped at an annual rate of 14%.

You need to go out and buy some American-made stuff.