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Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 12:12 AM
Original message
Any Economists Out There? GDP Question
How is value of output determined for residential investment as used in GDP calculation?

That is, let's say I build a house one year, and put in a certain amount of labor and materials, and finish it.

The next year, I do exactly the same, putting in the same labor and materials, but the housing market says my house just built is worth 10 percent more.

Is my output the second year 10 percent greater than first year?

Can anyone answer this?

*** background

GDP = C + I + G + NX

Consumption spending (C) consists of consumer spending on goods and services. It is often divided into spending on durable goods, non-durable goods, and services. These purchases accounted for 70 percent of GDP in the third quarter.

Durable goods are items such as cars, furniture, and appliances, which are used for several years (9%).
Non-durable goods are items such as food, clothing, and disposable products, which are used for only a short time period (21%).
Services include rent paid on apartments (or estimated values for owner-occupied housing), airplane tickets, legal and medical advice or treatment, electricity and other utilities. Services are the fastest growing part of consumption spending (41%).
Investment spending (I) consists of non-residential fixed investment, residential investment, and inventory changes. Investment spending accounts for 15 percent of GDP, but varies significantly from year to year.

Non-residential fixed investment is the creation of tools and equipment to use in the production of other goods and services. Examples are the building of factories, the production of new machines, and the manufacturing of computers for business use (10%).
Residential investment is the building of a new homes or apartments (5%).
Inventory changes consist of changes in the level of stocks of goods necessary for production and finished goods ready to be sold (0%).
Government spending (G) consists of federal, state, and local government spending on goods and services such as research, roads, defense, schools, and police and fire departments. This spending (19%) does not include transfer payments such as Social Security, unemployment compensation, and welfare payments, which do not represent production of goods and services. Federal defense spending now accounts for approximately 5 percent of GDP. State and local spending on goods and services accounts for 12 percent of GDP.

Net Exports (NX) is equal to exports minus imports. Exports are items produced in the U.S. and purchased by foreigners (10%). Imports are items produced by foreigners and purchased by U.S. consumers (14%). Thus, net exports (exports minus imports) are negative, about -4% of the GDP.

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Frodo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 07:17 AM
Response to Original message
1. I'm not an economist (but I play one on the internet).
Edited on Sun Feb-08-04 08:05 AM by Frodo
GDP is the "market value" of all goods and services "produced".

But there is no "market value" on something that is not sold at market.

So the real question is "did you sell the house as part of a business?" If so, then yes, your "output" increased by 10%.

If it's just you building a house for yourself than neither number matters because household production in one's own home is excluded from GDP like if you own a farm and eat some of what you grow. "Not sold at market" = "not part of GDP".

There is also no component for market appreciation later. If you buy a house and sell it three years later for a 10% profit there is no effect. "Previously produced" products don't count either.


Though there is probably plenty of input to GDP for all the goods and services you purchased to construct the home.
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junker Donating Member (403 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 10:43 AM
Response to Original message
2. Reality is not quite like you imagine. GDP actually measures velocity of m
GDP actually measures velocity of money through the Federal Reserve System of banks. What actually would happen is that if you built your house on land owned by you with no debt attached, and further built if of scrap materials or donated materials with your own, uncompensated labor, then it would never show up until such time as it 'entered' the system by having dollar denominated debt attached to it (say in a sale).

This is due to the Govt relying on the financial records to do the calcs. So they are not measuring actual, material, GDP, but rather are tracking the funds that flow about within the system. This is the underlying mechanism that allows the govt to report a huge swing up in GDP one month (nov at 8+ per cent) and a huge down swing in another month (Jan 04, 2+ per cent). In fact we are actually measuring how fast the Fed can issue and monetarize debt, as well as how fast it is 'absorbed' or 'accepted' by the economy.

It is for this reason that illegal activities are not counted in the main (actuall drug sale for instance) but are captured when the large scale aggregations of these efforts show up in the Fed banking system (i.e. deposits of drug money into some dollar 'asset').

So the house will in fact show up several times, and repeatedly any time new debt is attached the whole thing is 're-counted'. Further any dollars that you spend in labor that gets reported with taxes is also counted (again - same dollars you borrowed/used, and counted a third or fourth time as the laborer spends them on his house). This is what is known as 'hedonic' measuring. This measurement system was brought into the Fed by A. Greenspan, (knight of the realm, subject of the Queen of England, AND employee of the Queen of England and her son Chucky who own the majority of shares in the Federal Reserve system through easily traceable proxies and direct ownership).

Hedonic measurement also allows them to say that the economy is improving cause the chip speed of computers is getting faster there fore there is that much more 'productivity' running around which means that OF COURSE the GDP must have grown by X amount so let's just chuck that in for good measure.....

make sense? if not, you are not alone. Go to the BLS and the FED and look at the formula that they are using to loot the country....

too extreme a view? well I am proud to say it is one shared by Warren Buffet and others of some knowledge of these things.

Check out the Austrian (Von Mises) school of economic thought and you can gain insight into how the whole scheme is run.

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Frodo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 12:37 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Dan - Remember to take Junker with a grain (or silo) of salt.
He often has a "creative" use of terminology. GDP is simply NOT the velocity of money through the Fed.

The two concepts interrelate in that the velocity of money (essentially the number of times each dollar is used in the economy during the year) times the monetary supply is equal to GDP times a measure of inflation called the "GDP Deflator". But this certainly isn't a correlation that GDP is somehow equal to the velocity of money.

In fact, the calculation is usually used as a way to calculate effective inflation (let's not get back to THAT again) since the velocity of money changes very little (though low rates certainly "help") and are almost used as a constant. So you can compare the rate the money supply is growing to GDP growth and see how you may be impacting inflation. As I pointed out a couple days ago, inflation is essentially the extent to which the money supply grows IN EXCESS OF the growth in products and services.

Your house does NOT show up in GDP every time you refinance it. The constant financing and sale DO effect the velocity of money (that $100,000 just got "used" again), but that tends to average out fairly well. As I pointed out, the velocity of money does not change substantially. In truth it is NOT a constant, but it does not vary to nearly the extent implied in an 8% month followed by a 2% month.
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junker Donating Member (403 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 01:29 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. Dan sorry to do this to you but Frodo is expressing ignorance so here is
some of the actual formulas for showing that IN SPITE OF THE CLAIMS by govt/FED to the contrary, there is indeed an explicit and direct relationship between the growth of money on the part of the FED and the calculations of the GDP....in other words the bastards are lying when they say they are actually measuring how many widgets were created....

some pertinent definitions/formulas and then the link to this page. Then lets get started over at The Austrians School where one can get serious about the numbers and formulary and the lies told by the Fed....

The Money-Growth/Economic-Growth Equation. In the money-flow conceptual framework an empirically-measurable Money Demand Ratio (MDR = M1/GDP) replaces the abstract Keynesian "liquidity preference schedule" and monetarist "velocity." This makes possible a simple formula which opens the monetarists' conceptual "black box" and makes it possible to analyze empirically the real functional relationship between money growth and GDP growth. This formula is valid in either nominal or real terms) when both money and GDP are expressed in the same terms. (In the formula, "gr" stands for growth rate.


GDP gr = M1 gr - MDR gr
In this form, this equation, like other macroeconomic equations, is, of course, a conceptual "identity" -- its two sides are equal "by definition" in an ex post accounting sense.

link

http://www.iea-macro-economics.org/krev-sum.html


Now note that TPTB do SAY that they are measuring production, but ask any economist to name any of the supposedly surveyed Items of Production (industrial base calcs were done away within 1935). There after even IP property royalites were taken out of the equation in 1968. Then actuall commodity importation rates (as a measure of what we had to import to supposedly create something from it that could be measured) were taken out of the GDP calcs in 1972....shall we go on?

http://www.mises.org/
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junker Donating Member (403 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 01:35 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. Also, Frodo, Dude! I do not mean anything at all related to interest rates
what I am speaking of is the fractional reserve system of currency/economic/financial control under which we operate and how fast 'money' is created from debt, absorbed into the system, and then destroyed. As one may note now, the Kondratief Winter always brings with it, deflation. What is interesting to us peons and wage-slaves out here in the hinterland is that the velocity of bucks from Fed to destruction is increasing exponentially in order to bring in linear growth in GDP and that the last stimulus (mainlining currency in to the system) resulted in the Nov GDP jump but now clearly the 'wastral' phase has started in that absent constant stimulation which is not feasible and if tried ALWAYS leads to hyper-inflation, every indicator goes down. I mean GDP, Housing refi, credit card paybacks, et al. If they (FED/TPTB) don't constantly pump-it-up with their economic viagra, then the 'recovery' indicators start to falter.

The fact of the matter is that we are now in a depression, and have been since 2001, and will continue in one for at least the next decade. This latter as it will take a number of years for politicians to get brave enough to flat out say we are fucked economically. And as we all know, until the living in denial stops, the healing cannot come.

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Frodo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 02:18 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Whoops! Didn't see your post before I replied...
Guess you made my point for me. Thanks.
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Frodo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 02:16 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. At least it's not political with you Junker. Your a purist.
It isn't so much that the Bush administration is lying to us (something I suspect Dan would have no problem with). It's an ongoing lie perpetrated by decades of administrations on both sides.

You see Dan, Junker doesn't really care how they measure anything. His entire economic "philosophy" is based on the notion that any economy based on a fiat currency has it's foundations on "shifting sand" to use an equally "religious" (that is, "no evidence - based entirely on faith") term. You can search through here for prediction after prediction forecasting the complete destruction of the US (if not the world) economy. Every little blip up in the dollar is a false con game perpetrated by some Illuminati-like controlling group while even minor fluctuations downward are the first stages of total economic collapse.

The association with the Austrian school of economic thought is a dead giveaway. Let's just say there is a difference between "mainstream economists" and the Austrians. They tend to be much more concerned with theory than application and have a remarkably poor view of mathematics considering the field they play in. You'll also see some remarkably precise predictions (incrdibly WRONG, but not imprecise). Feel free to read through junker's complete set of posts and decide for yourself what his track record is. Just remember that when he says "they're lying about where they get these numbers" it isn't REPUBLICANS he's talking about, it's EVERY governing administration COMBINED with a belief that the numbers themselves are lying.

Junker - "there is indeed an explicit and direct relationship between the growth of money on the part of the FED and the calculations of the GDP"

Frodo - I believe I made the connection between money supply and GDP. I made it as part of point disagreeing with YOUR thesis that it was the VELOCITY of money that was the measurement. They are not at all the same things.
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Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 07:41 PM
Response to Reply #3
8. Anyone can comment -- I'm actually going somewhere with this
Edited on Sun Feb-08-04 07:45 PM by DanSpillane
Go back to my original question. It's actually simpler than you guys are making it.

Let's say a mega-home-builder builds a house in a quarter, and it is in his/her inventory for sale, and someone borrows to buy it. Would not the value of this new output be reflected in a particular quarters GDP, against the labor it took to build it (for productivity calculations)?

In the reference for GDP calculations, I see something like "output value" (or index) used to calculate the value of GDP for residential investment.

That being the case, wouldn't a large part of the GDP value in the latter half of 2003 be based on inventories of homes? In other words, isn't that huge res. investment number in the GDP tables simply the aggregate price of all homes built in a quarter, and priced based on the market in that quarter? And hence, the 'output value'?

Bits and pieces of what you guys have said are steering my thought process in a very interesting direction.

(you said)
Your house does NOT show up in GDP every time you refinance it.
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Frodo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 08:27 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. Well,
By the definition, it would have to be "good sold" (though a big part of those ongoing revisions you read about is re-assessments of what was produced when and what was sold when). So there shouldn't be a big inventory factor in there, but yes, increases in inventory CAN inflate GDP in one period and then deflate it in the period the item is actually sold in. So changes in inventory can help signal the next month's GDP direction.

But keep in mind what gets factored there... LARGE chunks of the value in that house are items that got counted into GDP as they were "sold" to the manufacturer. If I make air conditioning systems, my $4,000 of that house may already be "purchased". The home-builder's chunk of GDP is the "value added" into the house.



Your house does NOT show up in GDP every time you refinance it.

Well, let me be a bit more precise (wiggle a little). Speaking as a banker, mortgages DO count as part of the "goods and services" that WE provide. So a portion of the fees that you pay to us WOULD go into GDP, but that's a tiny part of the value of the house. Some of the other fees would count too - say the $200 you pay to an appraisal firm (that's HIS "services" sold at market) or the money you pay the survey firm or home inspector. So yeah, refinancing activity counts toward GDP, just not the value of your house being churned over and over into the GDP measurement.
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junker Donating Member (403 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 09:16 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. Ah, frodo, a captive banker to query....so if the house doesn't show up ev
so if the house doesn't show up every time it is refinanced, describe this transaction to the GDP...

a man in WA state borrows 20K dollars to buy raw logs (a lot of them) and rent some space in a field and hire some labor to build log houses.

1) the first impact is the fractional reserve 'creation' of the money in their book-2-bill relationship with the bank 'originating ' the loan. As of that point, the Fed records a 20K dollars 'boost' in economic activity counted within the GDP. Further they note the 'poof' into existance of the 20K due to the deposit of the required fractional reserve amounts to 'create' the 20K dollars. This adds the 20K minus the reserve requirement to the GDP...since they create the money and call their own act of creation a postive for the GDP even though no-thing of value exists at that point and the only 'thing' created is debt.

2) BOB receives his loan of 20K and immediately buys logs. Now the vendor of the logs records the transaction, pockets the profits, hides some from his wife, and goes out drinking. BUT the point is that the next quarter's activity survey of the tax authorities shows the quarters take from BOBs activity buying the logs and notes that within the natural resources area of the report, we had an up tick of 5 thousand dollars. So now the 20K is actually the 20K minus the reserve amount (what 1% these days?) plus the 5K spent for the logs. So suddenly we have magnified the GDP calcs by 25K. We could even follow the analogy further and note the beer being drunk which was paid for by the profits hidden from the log vendors wife....but too trivial.

3) however note that BOB gets a bunch of guys together and they knock out a log house which is sold to MIKE. Now BOB records the sale, and the 45K that he charges goes into the GDP as increased 'manufacturing' activity. So now we have 20K + 5K + BEER MONEY + 45K all on one house entering the system.

4) MIKE also gets a loan, only he gets a loan for 85K so he can buy property and pay for setting up the house. Of course, the 85K now hits the GDP calcs through the origination formula plus also through the reserve requirements activity and other activity. As the bank handed this out as a 'building loan' it also shows up under the 'construction metrics'.

5) Now MIKE puts the house on the lot but his girlfriend hates the place and they move out the next quarter and the house is put on the market at 130K. Now when the house sells this time, it hits the GDP in 9 areas including real estate activity, reserve requirements reports, commercial transactions activity (escrow and related services), und so vieter....

now the issue is, where in any of the formulary available, does either the Federal reserve or the Govt back out any of the previous calculations involving the same money stream?

Further, the conclusion from the example above (paraphased from the feds' own training manuals), the only 'thing' being tracked is debt. Not creation of goods or services but rather the debts used to 'finance' them. To speak of this otherwise is to live in denial. And dear Frodo, as a banker, tell me who 'owns' the house in any of the transactions above...not the financee, all they 'own' is the debt. It is the bank that 'owns' the transaction.

And as to disparaging remarks about Austrian economists, let me please note that ad hominum attacks (especially by association) are frequently used by those who find themselves engaged in a battle of wits or facts while in possession of neither. To have an opinion of the austrians without noting that your profession has destroyed 4 currencies in the USofA since 1690 stinks of denial and self-serving piety of personal opinion propped up by self-agrandizing position. NOT that I believe that of you, merely pointing out that to the engaged mind your approach to discussion does not serve you well.

Yes, my opinions on fiat currencies are considered extreme, that view is held primarily by those who have not lived through a currency collapse (I have seen 4 in my life and the crises that resulted are not pretty).

I am a realist. Perhaps, as noted a purist, and as such I do beleive that R. Rubin and AL. G. conspired to implement the 'strong dollar' policy at the expense of the deaths of thousands of persons (mostly in africa) within the poor, resource exploiting countries of the world. And that this blantant manipluation of the currency led to both the 'boom' and the bust which is following and will lead into the most extreme form of deflationary depression yet seen in the world. That this happened on a democrat's watch does not absolve them for not knowing about it, but since the origination of the problem was in 1913 when W. Wilson, in signing the Income Tax and Other Acts which allowed the Federal Reserve to seize control of the money of the USofA, said, 'today I have sold my fellow citizens into slavery. May they have forgiveness on my soul.', then the act was soooo long in coming that the Democrats at the peak can be held to be more washed in the tide of the times, than channelers of the obvious stupidity that has gotten us here.

So it is not political with me. A man's political association does not blind me to his perfidy or honor, as the case may be. To act other wise is not rational.

But let me also point out that one who believes the outputs of the GDP figures from the Govt, or virtually any report from the FED is a bigger fool than my wife thinks me to be....


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Frodo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 10:03 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. Bad news for you Junker
Edited on Sun Feb-08-04 10:17 PM by Frodo
I presumed your wife would be the only one to think otherwise :-)

I'll take a look at the rest tomorrow, but I see several factual errors and holes in your example.
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Frodo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-09-04 10:40 AM
Response to Reply #10
15. Long wait - Long answer.
Ok, sorry for the delay.

There are several points of your example that are simply incorrect. Not to make another "attack" against the Austrian school, but another common weakness is the almost religious reliance on underlying assumptions that are not proved. In your case here, you make three general errors. 1) You completely misuse/misunderstand the concept of reserve requirements. 2) You use circular reasoning - that is, your proof rests heavily on the things to be proven ( that the Fed measures GDP entirely by credit creation AND that a house shows up in GDP several times as it runs through it's life) - and 3) In smaller dollar amounts you mistake (again) money creation and the velocity of money.

So let's get started, we have a lot to cover - Reserve requirements - you get this almost entirely backwards.

What is a reserve requirement? And what purpose does it serve? Anyone who has ever see "It's a Wonderful Life" knows what happened when there was a "run" on the bank. Because the bank doesn't actually have your deposits sitting in the vault (the money is in someone else's home in the case of the Bailey S&L), so if enough people want to withdraw their deposits in cash, the bank just goes under. To avoid this, the Fed now requires every bank to hold a percentage of the deposits in a reserve account, correspondent accounts, OR in cash. The percentage required is supposed to insure adequate liquidity in the case of high demand for cash (as in a run).

This is important - Reserve requirements have NOTHING to do with loans. Since your entire house of cards is built on this assumption we could just stop here. But I could have done that last night - why make you wait? So let's run through your example:



1) the first impact is the fractional reserve 'creation' of the money in their book-2-bill relationship with the bank 'originating ' the loan. As I pointed out, this does not happen. There is no reserve requirement for money loaned out, why would there be? Now, there IS a reserve requirement for the bank that takes the deposit (presumably the checking account for the vendor of the logs and/or the accounts of the people he pays for the work), BUT there is no way to tie it to the money loaned out. They have the same requirement if he brought in $20,000 from his mutual funds or if he was paid in cash. Further, reserve requirements vary substantially with the type of deposit. If the logger puts it in a CD there is currently NO reserve required. More than that, since cash-on-hand, certain investments, and some correspondent accounts count toward reserves, many banks have little to no money actually on deposit with the fed. Some only keep what is necessary to clear checks through the fed. In practice, there is no describable effect from an particular transaction (that is, the loan probably does NOT show up in anyone¡¦s reserve account. Certainly not in a way the fed could measure money creation). Additionally, the ease banks have of borrowing reserves (at incredibly cheap rates today) means that there never has to be ANY connection between the two.


As of that point, the Fed records a 20K dollars 'boost' in economic activity counted within the GDP. Well, not here actually (this is part of your circular argument - you are trying to prove that this loan causes a boost in GDP measurements, you can't use the argument to prove itself). The GDP effect is when the 20k is actually used to buy the logs, not when it is loaned out (or, when the final product is sold in the example given). If you borrow 20k and stick it in a CD you don't impact GDP (but you will impact inflation - though that's another topic) and there is no reserve reporting at all.

Further they note the 'poof' into existence of the 20K due to the deposit of the required fractional reserve amounts to 'create' the 20K dollars. Now here you are correct (minus the "" that make it look fake). Money actually IS created in the transaction. There's 20k sitting in the account the bank took in to make the loan possible AND 20k sitting in the account of the logging company. BOTH are "real" money.

This adds the 20K minus the reserve requirement to the GDP...since they create the money and call their own act of creation a positive for the GDP even though no-thing of value exists at that point and the only 'thing' created is debt. Ok, ignore the "reserve" part of the sentence and that's close. Though it does NOT register as GDP growth (that circular argument again), IF the person takes out a loan and DOESN'T buy the logs, then you've increased the supply of money without any corresponding increase in the total of goods and services in the economy. This IS inflation. The problem is that it doesn't happen that way. Bob goes to the bank to borrow 20k and they say "what for?". When he says "logs for my business to build a home" they make the logs the collateral on the loan and the check is made payable to the logging company - so you can't separate the financing from the economic production.

2) BOB receives his loan of 20K and immediately buys logs. Now the vendor of the logs records the transaction, pockets the profits, hides some from his wife, and goes out drinking. BUT the point is that the next quarter's activity survey of the tax authorities shows the quarters take from BOBs activity buying the logs and notes that within the natural resources area of the report, we had an up tick of 5 thousand dollars. So now the 20K is actually the 20K minus the reserve amount (what 1% these days?) plus the 5K spent for the logs. So suddenly we have magnified the GDP calcs by 25K. We could even follow the analogy further and note the beer being drunk which was paid for by the profits hidden from the log vendors wife....but too trivial.

Ok, a couple mistakes here. The increase in GDP is based on value added - You don't get $20,000 AND $5,000 counted. You get $5,000 of natural resources tapped and $15,000 value added to the transaction by the logger (some of which is profit/beer), for a total of $20,000. You also ignore the production of the logging company. Your story sounds a lot like there are just these logs hanging around and nobody has to do anything to sell them to Bob. In fact, the logger paid salaries to dozens of employees to produce the logs - employees that would have no jobs otherwise (in the aggregate). So the $20k loan is REAL money creation that results in REAL economic activity (the production of the logs) that also would not have occurred without the loan. THIS is what credit-based growth is supposed to do. You also make a couple trivial mistakes with the velocity of money. The money spent on beer is the same dollar being used more than once (as is anything the logger's employees spend their salary on). That's not money creation, that's velocity. On top of this, remember that GDP is supposed to measure sale of finished goods, so none of this actually counts at this point because this isn't the end of the product chain.

3) however note that BOB gets a bunch of guys together and they knock out a log house which is sold to MIKE. Now BOB records the sale, and the 45K that he charges goes into the GDP as increased 'manufacturing' activity. So now we have 20K + 5K + BEER MONEY + 45K all on one house entering the system.

Sorry, you have the 20k (+/-) in log production and 25k of value added into the home that is sold, for a total of $45k and a hole of 25k until you tell me how the house was paid for in (4). You also make the same mistake you made above. You conveniently assume "a bunch of guys" just got together and built this thing. In reality, these are Bob's employees who also get paid.

4) MIKE also gets a loan, only he gets a loan for 85K so he can buy property and pay for setting up the house. Of course, the 85K now hits the GDP calcs through the origination formula plus also through the reserve requirements activity and other activity. As the bank handed this out as a 'building loan' it also shows up under the 'construction metrics'.

Alright, I'm presuming that's $45k to Bob to build the house and $40k for the land. Some of that counts toward GDP (like if Mike had to pay Tony to grade the land and install sewer/power/water), some of it doesn't. But HERE is where we have the sale of a finished good and a final impact on GDP.


5) Now MIKE puts the house on the lot but his girlfriend hates the place and they move out the next quarter and the house is put on the market at 130K. Now when the house sells this time, it hits the GDP in 9 areas including real estate activity, reserve requirements reports, commercial transactions activity (escrow and related services), und so vieter....

Sorry, sale of previously sold goods does NOT count toward GDP, so don't think of kicking 130k in there. But you ARE correct that it still impacts GDP in several areas. The realtor provides a finished service that represents around $8k, then you've got the services provided by the bank, inspector, surveyor, any subs who help fix up the property for sale, escrow agents, etc etc etc. Call it $10-12k or more. But not the 130k. Nothing was "produced" in reselling a previously produced product. It CAN impact GDP in that Mike is likely to do SOMETHING with that $30k+ profit on the sale of the house. If he buys a new Dodge with it he still adds to GDP from the "new money" created by the $130k loan. Something else to consider is that Mortgages don't really "create" money in the way the bank does. mortgages are almost never backed by deposits in a bank that still belong to the depositor. They are almost always "securitized" by Fannie Mae or the like. Those securities cannot be withdrawn over their lifetime, only sold to another investor. So the money doesn't really exist in two places at once - hence no money creation. But I've assumed these were all bank loans for simplicity.



Issue #2 : now the issue is, where in any of the formulary available, does either the Federal reserve or the Govt back out any of the previous calculations involving the same money stream?

Skipping all the things you got wrong AND the circular reasoning, we can still look at how things are "backed out" (even if we assume your premise that the fed is somehow tracking the loans). When Mike sells the house, he doesn't get the $130,000. He MUST repay the 85k loan used to by the house (so that "reserve" wouldn't exist anymore) and BOB HAD to repay the money HE borrowed when he sold the house in the first place (along with the line of credit or seasonal loan used to carry his payroll while the house was under construction). The logger is also paying back his seasonal line of credit that he drew to log the natural resources in the first place.

Further, the conclusion from the example above (paraphased from the feds' own training manuals), the only 'thing' being tracked is debt. Not creation of goods or services but rather the debts used to 'finance' them. To speak of this otherwise is to live in denial.

I suspect you have an unusual definition of "paraphrased". I've already demonstrated that loans are not tracked at all. I'd love to see the original language you "paraphrased". Since I've taught "principles of banking" in the past, I'm fairly familiar with how the fed describes money creation. Your religious clinging to an incorrect underlying assumption is closer to the definition of denial.

And dear Frodo, as a banker, tell me who 'owns' the house in any of the transactions above...not the financee, all they 'own' is the debt. It is the bank that 'owns' the transaction.

I'd be happy to. I own it (as a consumer, not as the banker) by any definition I've seen. I can sell it, the bank can't (and that's the central point of ownership). I can paint it, the bank can't. Are there limitations? Sure. But only if I don't make my payments. But all ownership has limitations, the state can take it away from me to build a bypass (of course, the bank can't). There is a difference between collateral interest and ownership (that's why it's called "collateral").

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junker Donating Member (403 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-10-04 02:21 PM
Response to Reply #15
19. Frodo is correct and incorrect at the same time. The particulars
and the details are perfectly correct in a rational monetary system. However, the system today is not so. The GDP figures which are published are currently showing that it takes 6.1 dollars of DEBT to produce 1 dollar rise in GDP....further this trend is accellerating.


I offer the following....and note this about the debt....

In a roughly similar vein, Richard Russell, and if you do not know who Richard Russell is then you have no business reading this stuff, says, and as a warning I urge you to buckle your safety belt to keep from catapulting out of your chair, "Going over past history, say going back a hundred years, total US debt averaged around 130% of GDP. But today US debt is around 300% of GDP - its highest level in history. No country has ever carried debt amounting to 300% of its GDP before. Furthermore, the amazing fact is that our debt burden is actually growing faster than our GDP. In an effort to handle this debt burden, credit creation has been accelerating. Credit creation recently has been growing at an annualized rate of around $3.3 trillion."

Now note that if GDP which is a 'measure' of actual production and growth and such, then if that figure is 'produced' only through banking/financial transactions which originate in debt and are nothing but debt, then any 'asset' pledged as collateral for that debt is merely an item waiting to be confiscated in the process of the K winter cleaning up the debtberg.

So now we figure that at this rate, in 05 it will take a staggering 190+ dollars of new debt to create 1 dollar in 'GDP' growth....

debt is debt is debt is debt and goes all the way back to the 'managers' of the economy the private bank masquerading as a govt agency when it is in fact owned (mostly) by the queen of england and her son.

Furhter for every dollar that the FED 'creates' on your behalf, you (or the country at large really) is obligated to pay back 1.12. So if you only got one dollar from them to start with how is it ever possible to pay back the 'system'? It is not. WHich leads us to a point where the current GDP figure actually does not measure what Frodo sincerely believes it does, but rather reflects the 'burn rate' of debt (*also known as the velocity of money through the system which is NOT the Fed definition). This burn rate is what is being reflecte by the GDP.

I can prove this as we watch the GDP tumble over these next few months into large negative rates, it will be obvious that this is a debt absorbtion number as we can no longer absorb debt, the GDP will fall. In spite of bankster (no offense to Frodo, I am speaking of the real gangsta's at the Fed) jiggery with the numbers.

Let's see if I am not correct over the course of the summer as the debtberg rolls over and bury's the dollar.
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Frodo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 09:50 AM
Response to Reply #19
20. I'll take that bet!! Shall we say $1,000?
Edited on Wed Feb-11-04 09:52 AM by Frodo
I have to at least start by calling you on having no response for any of the salient parts of the debate. You demonstrated little knowledge on the issue yet feel completely comfortable jumping right back in and saying "all that may be true, but wait till you see what I'm predicting now!" You attempted to demonstrate the compelling nature of your GDP argument... failed at doing so... and now decide to go even further (and back into you "end of the word as we know it" mantra).

So once again I would be happy to take the bait/bet on the terms you call for. (Keeping in mind that you already owe me $1,000 on the last call that was 100% wrong - make all checks payable to DU and put "buy frodo a star" on the notes line).

I'd love to see where you got your numbers from since they don't make much sense. If the money supply is increased by 6$ for every dollar of growth (over some reasonable period of time) you would see rampant inflation well outside what could be hidden in the numbers. I love how you refer to uber-gold-bug Russel as someone you MUST read to be credible on economic theory. His predictions of Dow 3,000 and GOLD $3,000/oz put him firmly outside the mainstream.


Now note that if GDP which is a 'measure' of actual production and growth and such, then if that figure is 'produced' only through banking/financial transactions which originate in debt

I'm trying to think of an alternative? How ELSE do you propose growing GDP? If the money supply does not increase in step with increased production you get deflation. How exactly would you propose increasing the money supply? Just print a few Trillion dollars and GIVE it to the banks to distribute?

debt is debt is debt is debt

I'm afraid that just isn't so. Look at it from a personal perspective: Who is "better off", the guy with $20,000 in credit card debt (and nothing of lasting value to show for it) paying 12% APY in perpetuity on the toaster he bought last winter that is now in the trash? Or the guy with $200,000 in debt on a $220,000 house (paying 5.5% APY that is tax deductible)?

There is no disputing the argument... debt is only a problem to the extent that either a)the carrying charges are beyond your means or b) the debt exceeds the value of the thing(s) purchased.

There are exceptions to this rule of course... You could refinance your house and take out an extra $30,000 to buy a luxury car you wouldn't otherwise purchase. Though the cash flow is incredibly attractive, you are now paying for a 5-10 year asset on 30 year debt. Ten years from now you will have a junker and still owe the lion's share of the $30,000.

But a $30,000 car loan on a $35,000 car is not the same "debt is debt is debt is debt" as having $30,000 in debt and nothing to show for it.


So let's review the terms of the bet I propose:

You win if:

1) The GDP "tumbles" into large negative territory (shall we say -3%?) by this summer (we'll say the end of August?) - AND
2) The debtberg rolls over and burys the dollar. (Tougher to measure without a prediction - shall we just extend your $900/oz gold call to August? That would surely represent the dollar being buried?)




And once again, I am entirely comfortable betting any amount you wish because if I am right I make a pretty profit... while if YOU are correct, my $1,000 won't actually be WORTH anything and will be no loss to me.

An additional question for you. Assuming your prediction is true, wouldn't going massively into debt be the best thing I could do right now? If the dollar is about to disapear as a currency or be hyper-inflated into nothingness, won't my monthly payments on ANY debt be child's play? I should buy an enormous house because all they won't be able to take it from me as long as I can make the (fixed) monthly payment and that won't be a problem. I get to buy things with today's dollars and pay it back with mcuh much much cheaper dollars.

Nah, I think I'll just stick to the policy of "no debt except a reasonable mortgage".
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Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 12:05 PM
Response to Reply #20
21. But what if your income is flat or down
In a certain flavor of deflationary world, things like income are flat or go down, so you won't have dollars to pay your debt. So taking out MORE dollars of debt now is the most dangerous.

By the way, THIS is the current wage situation in the US...

Dan


*** you said ***
An additional question for you. Assuming your prediction is true, wouldn't going massively into debt be the best thing I could do right now? If the dollar is about to disapear as a currency or be hyper-inflated into nothingness, won't my monthly payments on ANY debt be child's play? I should buy an enormous house because all they won't be able to take it from me as long as I can make the (fixed) monthly payment and that won't be a problem. I get to buy things with today's dollars and pay it back with mcuh much much cheaper dollars.
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Frodo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:30 PM
Response to Reply #21
22. I guess I need to know WHICH doomsday scenario we're playing out?
Edited on Wed Feb-11-04 10:31 PM by Frodo
Junker is of the "hyperinflation by next week" school of thought. You now appear to be in the "Japan II Deflation" school.

You're right of course, if we're in for significant deflation then going way into debt is the worst thing you can do. Might as well buy the same assets next year for half the price. But I can only respond sarcasticly to one conflicting theory at a time. In this case it was Junker.

It seems everyone agrees we are in for a terrible doom... they just can't get on the same page of WHICH (contradictory) terrible doom we are in for.
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Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:35 PM
Response to Reply #22
23. I don't agree
Edited on Wed Feb-11-04 10:36 PM by DanSpillane
Consumer confidence figures say everyone is happy. So what do you mean "doom scenario"

A balance sheet as a nation which is loaded with debt, and low income and job growth, isn't a very complex economic problem to evaluate.

BTW see my new post on my website.
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Frodo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-12-04 11:54 AM
Response to Reply #23
24. You don't??? I'm shocked!
Edited on Thu Feb-12-04 11:57 AM by Frodo
:-)

The "doom scenario(s)" I refer to are the common postings here on the Econ threads about how the financial world is coming to an end, not the prevailing economist expectations. You and junker would seem to agree we're going to hell in a financial hand-basket, you are just predicting two conflicting routes to get there.

A balance sheet as a nation which is loaded with debt, and low income and job growth, isn't a very complex economic problem to evaluate.

A "balance sheet" that doesn't even mention "assets" is not a balance sheet. Debt by itself tells us very little. Your equation is incomplete.


On edit. I'll take a look at your site... I'm familiar with the basis of the arguments and I'm sure it won't surprise you that I disagree. But I'm on vacation for the next few days and won't check in much.
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54anickel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 09:50 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. I'd comment Dan, but I'd probably end up linking to something from
Mises. :evilgrin:
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Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-04 11:13 PM
Response to Reply #11
13. What is
Edited on Sun Feb-08-04 11:16 PM by DanSpillane
What is a "mises"? You can link in whatever you want.

Pardon my stupidity.

Also, do you follow the basic question? I simply wish to know how GDP (unit) output is defined in terms of building a new house, and how productivity is determined therefrom. I have looked at some of the govt. GDP tables with raw quarterly dollar amounts in them.

Put simply:
Is output and the productivity per unit dependent on the saleable price at time of completion of the house?

Dan

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papau Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-09-04 10:40 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. NO
:-)

GDP is in accounting terms an income statement.

and it is not tied back to a balance sheet - so changes in asset value generally have no effect on it -generally because write-ups and downs in value of inventory from their cost basis is hard - at least for me - to follow.
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Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-09-04 02:14 PM
Response to Reply #14
16. It is not a change in the asset value, it is the value upon creation
Edited on Mon Feb-09-04 02:23 PM by DanSpillane
I think you missed the question slightly. I was speaking of a new home built. Not of changes in values of homes which people own and have bought previously (aside from cashing out refi against them, which is a different matter altogether).

I don't see how else the GDP number for residential investment would be calculated other than the value of the item created (a house), upon sale when a loan is generated, or possibly, when it is in inventory up to the point of sale and loan.

GDP may be an income statement, but it is clearly a measure of output value for a quarter.

The value of houses seems to differ from that of(for example) vehicles in a quarter, in that the value of a house is driven by market force inflation, whereas that of a vehicle is fixed. Therefore, GDP in a quarter where a lot of houses are generated would seem to have an element of price inflation.

Correct me if I am wrong. Is there some other way an output index is calculated for residential investment? I don't see how.

I am going somewhere very important with this thread of analysis.
Dan
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papau Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-09-04 03:00 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. We agree - but inventory write-ups - like house sales inflation - are also
part of the deflator - the adjustment for inflation.

Granted that we have a one size fits all aggregate inflation factor - and we apply it to individual items - but the math should work so that the constant dollar GDP does not reflect inflation in house prices,

Now the wieghtings in the deflator have changed - more on rent, less on housing cost - and a solid arguement can be made that this incorrectly lowers the deflator, so that GDP constant dollar growth is overstated, but I've had no success in getting media to pay attention to these areas.

My hat is off to you if you can make an issue that is picked up by the media from this stuff,

Christ - the stupidity of the Social Security private accounts was not a permitted media discussion until the NY Senators committee - which had a few professionals and did not reject input - met and in the end did not endorse the GOP plan.

The fact that Council of Econ Adv put out a spinning report is rather sad - but even here the data is actually good and proves the point that private accounts suck if they are pulled from the payroll tax - you just have to ignore the bull shit write-up.

One day we will get the media to see that everything the GOP does is to help the rich - and in this case they are trying to prevent the FIT increase needed beginning in 2017 so as to get funds to pay back the SS system bonds that were given the Trust when the payroll tax surplus monies were stolen to finance the tax cut for the rich.

But the above is too mant words for the average media fellow - and indeed for the average media reader - so GOP slogans will prevail - if the media wants them to prevail.
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tedzbear Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-09-04 09:36 PM
Response to Original message
18. The GDP is not a good measure of anything! See my link...
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