Gross Domestic Product

SOURCE: COMMERCE DEPARTMENT

Measuring economic growth is fairly straightforward work and shows that America's lot has steadily improved over the past seven decades. But with crime, climate change and longer commutes, are we really better off? Maryland's state government is attempting to answer that question by quantifying in dollars the big influences on our well-being that seemingly defy calculation, such air quality and traffic congestion. Its new Genuine Progress Indicator is part of a growing movement to stop using gross domestic product, the closely tracked yardstick of goods and services produced, as a simplified stand-in for measuring quality of life.

Feeling duped by the illusory bookkeeping of Enrons and WorldComs as you watch your 401(k) shares wither like this drought summer's corn? Amid the cries for accounting reform, Bob Costanza thinks it's time to focus on a similar, but far greater, federal government schemes that has been depleting our shares in planet Earth for decades. The accounting tricks of corporations pale, says the University of Maryland professor, compared with how the government carries nature and human welfare "off the books" to falsely boost the economy's value.

WASHINGTON - The economy is now likely expanding at just half the brisk 5.9 percent pace at which the government on Friday estimated it grew last quarter. Business spending will make up for some of a slowdown in consumer spending - but not likely enough to reduce the jobless rate much. In a fresh reading on the nation's economic standing, the Commerce Department bumped up its growth estimate for the final quarter of 2009, from a 5.7 percent growth rate estimated a month ago. It was the strongest showing in six years.

U.S. financial markets were closed yesterday, the national day of mourning for former President Richard M. Nixon. The Commerce Department's durable goods orders report, originally scheduled to be released yesterday, will be released today, along with the department's report on first-quarter gross domestic product.

Economic indicators Monday: August new-home sales Wednesday: Final second-quarter gross domestic product Thursday: August personal income and spending, weekly jobless claims Friday: August construction spending Looking ahead Oct. 5 Baltimore PC Users Group will meet at 6:30 p.m., Cockeysville Middle School, 10401 Greenside Drive. Call 410-667-1699.

A weekly briefing on the economic calendar Monday Earnings reports: Interstate Bakeries, Toys "R" Us Tuesday Existing-home sales for July Earnings reports: H.J. Heinz Co., Ditech, Applied Signal, H&R Block, Hughes Supply, Omnivision Wednesday Durable goods orders for July New-home sales for July Earnings reports: J.M. Smucker, Nordson Corp., Williams-Sonoma, Dollar Tree Thursday Earnings reports: Cardinal Health, Dollar General, Krispy Kreme, Smithfield Foods, Tivo Friday Preliminary second-quarter gross domestic product Revised University of Michigan consumer sentiment report for August Earnings reports: Piedmont Natural Gas

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. economy expanded much faster than expected in the fourth quarter last year, amid signs that the effects of the economic crisis in Asia and other developing countries may be beginning to fade.The Commerce Department said yesterday that U.S. gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, grew by 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter, the strongest pace in more than two years.The fourth-quarter growth rate was up sharply from an unrevised 3.7 percent pace in the third quarter, and well above the 4.1 percent growth rate that most economists were expecting.

Citigroup stock falls below $1 a share CHARLOTTE, N.C. : Shares of Citigroup Inc., once the nation's most powerful bank, fell below $1 a share yesterday. The stock was as low as 97 cents in late morning trading and down 11 cents, or 9.7 percent, to close at $1.02 for the day. New York-based Citi has lost more than 85 percent of its value this year and is down more than 95 percent from a year ago, as the bank is pummeled by souring loans and the impact of the recession. But Citigroup's shares will remain on the New York Stock Exchange.

WASHINGTON - The economy is now likely expanding at just half the brisk 5.9 percent pace at which the government on Friday estimated it grew last quarter. Business spending will make up for some of a slowdown in consumer spending - but not likely enough to reduce the jobless rate much. In a fresh reading on the nation's economic standing, the Commerce Department bumped up its growth estimate for the final quarter of 2009, from a 5.7 percent growth rate estimated a month ago. It was the strongest showing in six years.

Citigroup stock falls below $1 a share CHARLOTTE, N.C. : Shares of Citigroup Inc., once the nation's most powerful bank, fell below $1 a share yesterday. The stock was as low as 97 cents in late morning trading and down 11 cents, or 9.7 percent, to close at $1.02 for the day. New York-based Citi has lost more than 85 percent of its value this year and is down more than 95 percent from a year ago, as the bank is pummeled by souring loans and the impact of the recession. But Citigroup's shares will remain on the New York Stock Exchange.

Because the U.S. economy is so astonishingly complex and subject to so many variables, economists can't predict recessions. They can't even say for certain one is under way until months after it has begun. What economic experts can do is establish probabilities of a financial meltdown. And with the U.S. economy already on the ropes as it enters 2008, most experts say things are almost certain to get worse. The question that can't yet be answered: How much worse? The housing market is still falling and still eroding consumers' confidence.

The nation's economy grew at a 3.5 percent rate in the first quarter, a stronger performance than estimates had suggested, the Commerce Department said yesterday. The report helped ease recent concerns that the economy's momentum might be flagging. Late last month, in its initial "advance" report, the government said the nation's gross domestic product grew at a lower-than-expected rate of 3.1 percent. Yesterday, however, Commerce said that after a routine fine-tuning of its preliminary figures, the revised data indicate that the GDP's growth rate was actually a stronger 3.5 percent.

Economic indicators Monday: August new-home sales Wednesday: Final second-quarter gross domestic product Thursday: August personal income and spending, weekly jobless claims Friday: August construction spending Looking ahead Oct. 5 Baltimore PC Users Group will meet at 6:30 p.m., Cockeysville Middle School, 10401 Greenside Drive. Call 410-667-1699.

A weekly briefing on the economic calendar Monday Earnings reports: Interstate Bakeries, Toys "R" Us Tuesday Existing-home sales for July Earnings reports: H.J. Heinz Co., Ditech, Applied Signal, H&R Block, Hughes Supply, Omnivision Wednesday Durable goods orders for July New-home sales for July Earnings reports: J.M. Smucker, Nordson Corp., Williams-Sonoma, Dollar Tree Thursday Earnings reports: Cardinal Health, Dollar General, Krispy Kreme, Smithfield Foods, Tivo Friday Preliminary second-quarter gross domestic product Revised University of Michigan consumer sentiment report for August Earnings reports: Piedmont Natural Gas

WASHINGTON - U.S. worker productivity grew at a 3.8 percent annual rate from January through March, faster than the final quarter of 2003, as investment in equipment helped employers become more efficient. Labor costs rose. The government's measure of the work done by one employee in an hour showed a 2.5 percent annual rate of increase in October-December, the Labor Department said. The first-quarter rate also was higher than the 3.5 percent initially reported in May. Gains in productivity, aided by higher spending on equipment and software, may help companies hold down costs and safeguard profits, economists said.

WASHINGTON -- Exasperated with the failure of the United States to reduce its budget deficit, an organization representing 24 industrial nations said yesterday that the American government must consider increasing taxes. It suggested a 25-cent-a-gallon increase in the tax on gasoline and a 5 percent national sales tax.The report, issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said the federal deficit of nearly $300 billion threatened to push up interest rates around the world as well as undermine the American government's plans to increase investment.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The U.S. economy will gain strength in the second half and keep accelerating into 2004 when it will expand by the most in four years, according to a private survey of economists released yesterday. U.S. gross domestic product will rise at a 3.7 percent pace in the current quarter and at a 3.8 percent rate in the final three months, according to the average forecast of 54 economists surveyed Aug. 4-5 by Blue Chip Economic Indicators of Kansas City. In the last survey, economists had expected a 3.6 percent increase in third-quarter growth.

The nation's economy, which has struggled since emerging from a recession two years ago, shifted into overdrive in the third quarter and grew at its fastest pace in nearly two decades, propelled by tax cuts, strong consumer and corporate spending and exports. The gross domestic product, which measures the output of goods and services produced in the United States, surged at a 7.2 percent annual rate in the July-to-September period, up from 3.3 percent in the prior quarter, according to a Commerce Department report.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The U.S. economy will gain strength in the second half and keep accelerating into 2004 when it will expand by the most in four years, according to a private survey of economists released yesterday. U.S. gross domestic product will rise at a 3.7 percent pace in the current quarter and at a 3.8 percent rate in the final three months, according to the average forecast of 54 economists surveyed Aug. 4-5 by Blue Chip Economic Indicators of Kansas City. In the last survey, economists had expected a 3.6 percent increase in third-quarter growth.