Economic Newsletter
GDP: Does It Measure Up?
How is the total value of all the goods and services produced in a country’s economy measured? Gross domestic product (GDP) is one common and fairly comprehensive measure. This month’s newsletter explains GDP components and how it is calculated. It also describes what GDP does—and...
Prices: The Marketplace’s Communication System
Remember when airlines started charging for checked bags? What happened to the number of checked bags after this added charge? And what happened to the availability of in-cabin storage space on planes? This month’s newsletter answers these questions and discusses the pivotal role price plays...
Money and Inflation: A Functional Relationship
They say that "money makes the world go round." Just imagine a world without money as our method of payment for everyday transactions. Without money, we would all need to barter for necessary goods and services. For example, suppose an accountant needs to have her car fixed. Under a...
Investing in Yourself: An Economic Approach to Education Decisions
"Human capital" may not be the first thing that comes to mind when we think about investments, but investing in education and training is an important economic decision. Learn about human capital and the return on such an investment in the February 2013 Page One Economics...
Choices Are Everywhere: Why Can’t We Just Have It All?
As the Rolling Stones song says, "You can't always get what you want." So we make choices. Every day, governments and individuals choose how much money to spend and what to purchase. The January 2013 Page One Economics Newsletter, "Choices Are Everywhere: Why Can’t We...
The Output Gap: A “Potentially” Unreliable Measure of Economic Health?
The output gap is one (of many) economic indicators used by economists to measure the strength of the economy. What exactly is the output gap, and how accurately does it predict the state of the economy? Read this month's Page One Economics Newsletter, "The Output...
Glossary
Definition of the Week
Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP):
The total market value of all final goods and services produced in an economy in a given year calculated by using a base year’s price for goods and services; nominal gross domestic product (GDP) adjusted for inflation.
Related Reading
Is a two-day, online course produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It is designed to help students in civics, economics and other social studies classes grasp the challenging economic content—and to explain why these topics are important for citizens to understand.
Section One covers:
- the definition of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- the components of GDP
- per capita GDP
Section Two covers:
- real vs. nominal GDP
- levels vs. percentage change
- importance of a growing economy
- trend growth rate
- uses for GDP data
- automatic stabilizers
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