A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks on the television shortly after the opening bell.
REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Economists, politicians and the media watch GDP closely. But it isn’t the best way to measure the health of the US economy.
The United States reported 4.1% GDP growth for the second quarter.
US quarterly GDP is at its highest point since 2014, but it’s unlikely to last for a number of reasons.
African women do a lot of unpaid work that isn’t captured in GDP calculations.
Rafal Cichawa/Shutterstock
The methods used to measure gross domestic product are being criticised for excluding the unpaid work done by women.
South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has a tough job of fixing the damage caused during Jacob Zuma’s era.
GCIS
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has to show that he’s a decisive leader who can take unpopular decisions.
Construction of new dwellings was up 3.1% in January 2018.
Alan Porritt/AAP
The construction sector works on a bit of a time lag. So there are a bunch of projects underway that were premised on the loose credit of recent years.
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Earth has limited resources, so we can’t keep using them up. We need to look post-growth.
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GDP has many flaws. We need a better way to measure economic progress.
Is the observation that the standard of living stagnated until 1820 reliable?
Uroš Jovičić/Unsplash
Despite the technological advances that humanity has known for millennia, the standard of living did not begin to rise until around 1800.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde at the “G20: Compact With Africa”.
Reuters/Mike Theiler
South Africa will be well advised to start preparing itself for an International Monetary Fund programme as the country faces a deepening economic crisis.
Academics put Hammond in the spotlight.
EPA-EFE/ANDY RAIN
November 22, 2017
Chris Jones , Aston University ; Donald Hirsch , Loughborough University ; Ed Turner , Aston University ; Geoff J Rodgers , Brunel University London ; Gwilym Pryce , University of Sheffield ; Jill Rubery , University of Manchester ; Linda Bauld , University of Stirling ; Michael Kitson , Cambridge Judge Business School ; Paul Nieuwenhuis , Cardiff University , and Peter Bloom , The Open University
Academics deliver their verdict on Philip Hammond.
Workers at the Dangote cement mine in central Nigeria. Africa’s industrial policy favours big companies, not small.
Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
The problem with Africa’s model of industrial growth is that it privileges the formal at the expense of the informal and big corporations at the expense of small businesses.
Most Puerto Ricans are still in the dark, as is the mainland about the recent hurricanes’ economic impact.
Reuteres/Alvin Baez
Although Puerto Ricans are American citizens, what happens on the island tends to stay there, at least in terms of economic data.
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South Africa waits with bated breath for the 2017 medium term budget policy statement from new Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, as it might reveal key signals of where economic policy is headed.
Blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon, off Louisiana, in 2010. The losses produced by polluting companies should cost as ‘negative’ for a country’s growth.
Reuters/US Coast Guard/Files
A new accounting system that goes beyond the capitalist understanding of value is bubbling under and could topple capitalism itself.
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Theresa May wants to rapidly increase the supply of affordable homes, but will have to tread carefully on Britain’s talismanic property wealth.
The crisis hit the high street bank in 2007.
Gareth Fuller/PA Archive/PA Images
The 2007-08 financial crisis affected the world’s advanced economies in profound ways and the ripple effects continue to today.
U.S. President Donald Trump enjoys some time in the cab of a mover truck parked at the White House in March when truckers and industry CEOs came for a discussion on health care.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
Mexico has traditionally been NAFTA’s biggest loser. But Canada is at risk if the U.S. gets its way in removing a dispute settlement mechanism from the deal in the upcoming NAFTA renegotiations.
Our national wellbeing probably peaked with Australia’s population at roughly 15 million in the 1970s, when this photo was taken in Hunters Hill, Sydney.
John Ward/flickr
Australia’s GPI, a broad measure of national wellbeing, has stalled since 1974. So what has been the point of huge population and GDP growth since then if we and our environment are no better off?
Unemployment is compounded by the prospect of automation replacing humans in production chains.
Reuters/Bobby Yip
Rethinking work is crucial for industrialised and emerging economies, where job losses are being felt even in the presence of substantial, although diminishing, economic growth.
Treasurer Scott Morrison called a press conference this week to comment on March-quarter GDP figures.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Treasurer Scott Morrison says Australia will “grow into growth”. Global economic conditions suggest otherwise.