America's Go-To Economic Indicator Is Blunt and Obsolete

Robert F. Bukaty / AP The concept of the GDP, initially termed the "gross national product," was invented by the economist Simon Kuznets during the Great Depression. It was designed to provide information on whether or not the American economy, then characterized by widespread bankruptcies and mass unemployment, was improving. Kuznets, who later won a Nobel Prize in economics, eventually modified the figure so that it didn't include returns from foreign investments, and promptly renamed it the GDP. In time, quarterly and annual reports about the GDP gained prime importance as broad indicators ......(read more)

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