Gross Domestic Product is a measure of who has the strongest economies in the world. The GPD of the US affects each one of its citizens in many aspects of our daily lives. It is also extremely dependent on current jobs in the US and vice versa. Overall the measure of GDP is very important to the American economy and to the welfare of its citizens. .
GDP for the United States is calculated by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). There are quarterly measures every year to keep up with the measure of the whole year, these quarter reports can be seen on the Bureau of Economic Analysis's website. The expenditure approach, product approach and income approach are the three main ways that the BEA measures the GDP. The expenditure approach sums up the total amount of spending on goods and services. .
The product approach is calculating the market value of all of the goods and services and the income approach totals all of the producers' incomes. Consumer spending accounts for the largest part of the GDP; approximately 70% of the GDP comes from the purchases of goods and services such as food, clothing, gas, medical services, etc. (Landefeld) Also the inflation rate is taken out of the equation to create the real GDP; when the inflation rate is included in the whole equation it's called the nominal GDP. The measure and ranking of a country's GDP is extremely important.
America leads the world in the highest GDP; for now. America's GDP saw a steady increase for about 30 years in a row, due in large part to the development of new technology. (Clifton, 2011) Then in 2008 and 2009 there was a turn-around in the growing of America's GDP and economy. There were four economic contractions consecutively within those two years, which was the first time that had happened since the Great Depression in the first half of the 20th century. Even with the current economic state and the recession, the US still leads the world in GDP.