Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry if it sounds convoluted, but just trying to convey the actual rationale for the GDP equation (which is ignored or forgotten in most media reports). You understand GDP (It's not adding up all the things that were made, it's measuring the value an economy produced.). Imports clearly don't count as value an economy produced, and should not be in GDP. But if I import something, that increases GDP (spending is posit…
Yeah ok so here you go. Philosophically, GDP is an useful economic metric because it proxies economic activity and in your framework, economic activity is up , we are just paying for it via trade imbalance, which great, I love that foreigners will trade us goods/services for debt/assets. Hard to call that a recession (which again is why the 2 quarters thing is dumb). So circling back around to "my original point was…
in your framework, economic activity is up, we are just paying for it via trade imbalance
Wrong, I don't have a framework. I am just trying to explain to you how GDP is calculated. Economic activity is down when measured used GDP.
Your original post misunderstands GDP. I am not being pedantic, it is just incorrect:
Ok, let's play your game. How much of the first quarter decline was due to the ports clearing and imports rising? Here, I'll give you a hint (More than 100%)
Wrong, None of the decline was due to increased imports, because by the definition of GDP, imports are excluded. To quote the fed from the link above, "imports do not add to or subtract from GDP."
You agree that, in aggregate, the amount of consumption/investment/government spend are up, right? GDP has only declined because we didn't make all of it, which, sure, maybe a long-term problem, but irrelevant to a recession.
Wrong, GDP declined because domestic spending and/or investment and/or exports declined. Nothing to do with imports at all. Imports are not included in GDP, ergo, imports can't cause a decline in GDP.