This article seeks to review and discuss some key issues with the GDP metric

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures total market “value” (prices paid) of all final goods and services produced within a country during a specific period.

GDP became the US government’s preferred macroeconomic statistic in 1991 , replacing GNP as the main measure of economic output.

The statistic became popular, however, during WWII , and ever since, the GDP measure has been the most prominent.

Keynesian focus on consumption tempts politicians to approve stimulus’ measures aimed at pumping up this part of total spending.

Mises recognized that a government can only “give” by first taking and that government spending is literally at the expense of the private economy.

This is true through inflation, debt, and taxes, however, even more so through the “crowding out” effect of government action.

Joshua Mawhorter : GDP as a metric often misleads people to falsely equate GDP with economic health.

GDP was high during WWII , but when we disaggregate government spending (G) artificially boosts GDP at the expense of the private economy, we see that economic health and growth did not improve during WWII .