It is to my belief that no one can possibly predict the future of the economy. Because of this we are faced with many questions that cannot be easily answered. Will the economy recover drastically or simply continue to increase moderately? Or could the economy in turn go into a recession? "There's been plenty of good news about the U.S. economy? employment is expanding (2.4 million new payroll jobs in the last year); inflation remains low (less than a 2 percent rate in the past quarter); the stock market is higher (up 11 percent on the Dow from its November low), and business investment is impressive (rising at a 14 percent rate in late 2004)." (1) It is my opinion that unless something drastic happens in the world today, positive or negative, the economy will continue to increase at a modest rate. Even though no one quite knows which way our economy is heading, there are many economic concepts designed to help measure positive and negative changes that can show us how well we are or are not doing. These concepts include examples such as gross domestic product (GDP), business cycle, and unemployment rate.
It is only human nature to want economy growth because it will lead to higher incomes and higher living standards. In order to see which direction our economy is heading and measure our economic performance, a system was invented that measures the value of all final goods and services produced within a country during a specific period of time, usually a year. This system it called gross domestic product (GDP). These figures are closely watched by those in the business and financial communities to measure our economy's growth.
GDP is a measure of the economy's output. It is measured b ...