I began this post to illustrate that Equipment and Software is a strong contributor to measured GDP growth in the United States. Overall on par with the 90s. Indeed, the record was hit during this recovery.
And this is in terms of percentage point contribution to GDP growth. So if GDP growth was 3% and E&S contributed 1% then 1/3 of the growth in the US economy would be attributable to E&S.
However, since I already had FRED open I thought I would give some other major contributors by way of comparison.
This is residential investment.
This is non-residential structures
This is personal consumption
This is government
This is net exports
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Friday ~ August 26th, 2011 at 10:44 am
ruzel
I have two questions. Why did residential investment appear to contribute so little to GDP prior to 2008. Is this predictive of the housing bubble’s burst or had the bubble really already burst? And why in the world did government’s contribution to the GDP fall off so sharply when the stimulus package was passed?
Friday ~ August 26th, 2011 at 2:43 pm
Wonks Anonymous
Much of the stimulus was aid to state governments, and John Taylor has shown that the state governments simply reduced their borrowing accordingly. I think a lot of this reduction is at the state/local rather than federal level, as indeed so much of the growth in prior decades was at the same level (even if that was to implement federal programs or based on federal grants).
Friday ~ August 26th, 2011 at 10:51 am
Khal Mojo (@KhalMojo)
Negative net government ftw! Quick, drown it in a bathtub!
Friday ~ August 26th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
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