Once Again, Economists Promise Strong Growth After A Lousy Q1

Investor's Business Daily ^ | 04/29/2015 | John Merline

[Alberta's Child]

Very good post.

I'm not a huge fan of establishment Republican politics in Washington, but I heard a radio interview with Paul Ryan last weekend and he raised some excellent points that haven't gotten a lot of attention. For one thing, he pointed out that 96% of the consumers in the world live outside the U.S. -- which is why trade policy is so critical to the future of any advanced economy. Secondly, he pointed out that the U.S. has lost a lot of opportunities for trade with Asia over the last 20-30 years because the U.S. hasn't been a signatory of most of the trade agreements around the world during that time.

[FirstFlaBn]

I don't know what your background in economics is, but these are the five key components of GDP as I understand them:

1. Consumption 2. Investment 3. Government Spending 4. Exports 5. Imports

Exports and imports are measured as a net calculation (Exports minus Imports). Interestingly, "production" doesn't show up anywhere in this calculation...

You mangled it pretty badly in your intital claim - which I reacted to. That "$42 billion of crap" that you hyperbolically declaimed is netted out by subtracting value of imports (unless you can figure out a way to get China to send us stuff for free). Otherwise, by your method, if I take a dollar out of my left pocket and put it in my right pocket, I am a dollar richer.

You might want to crack the books as the expenditures approach, presented by you in an incomplete and misleading way, is one of several ways to calculate GDP. Best stick with the simpler production approach (that even I can keep straight - most of the time).

[Cringing Negativism Network]

I’ll tell you what.

You keep on supporting that procedure, and I’ll keep on supporting this procedure, and maybe, just maybe someone somewhere will get one small clue that AMERICA NEEDS TO BRING BACK AMERICAN BUSINESSES.

:D