GDP Components Summary Review
Looking back at all the stuff
Wow - what a journey the last two weeks. We started with a simple line of GDP and then looked at a bunch of other lines (and bar graphs!) to see all the different stuff that GDP was composed of.
That’s a lot of time spent on one topic but I thought it was really critical to build an initial foundation for future content. GDP is basically the number most popular with economists and we all know economists are super smart people, so it makes sense to look at the stuff that smart people look at! But there really is so much more than looking at an overall GDP number that says something like “The economy grew 2% this year.”
To me, understanding the fundamental components underlying GDP is essential to understanding how the economy ticks. There are a lot of people in the US - seems pretty important to ask what they heck they are all doing doesn’t it?
Turns out they are mostly consuming stuff. Oh, and businesses and the government consume too and then we trade with other countries. It may sound simple but it’s a great starting point to create a framework so we can better understand the world around us.
There are a lot of ways we can dig further into GDP but, if I haven’t bored you already, I’ve gotten a bit tired of it myself - I think I’ll save future breakouts of GDP for down the road! (And if you are in love with GDP, don’t worry because I have a few more related concepts I’m going to cover soon.)
So, since that’s all tied up and done for now, it seems like a good time to get a little organized and put all the content for the GDP components series in one place. Maybe you missed something along the way or are just so enthralled by my impeccable writing that you want to go back and read it all again. Well, here you go!
Components of Gross Domestic Product