A+Chinese+Century?+Maybe+It's+the+Next+One+-+Sharon+Hu

Title: OECD Slashes Japan GDP Forecast on Quake Source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/04/21/business/business-us-japan-economy-oecd.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=GDP&st=nyt Date: April 21, 2011

(I'm not talking about the whole article, but then I can't really highlight on the website=P)

Vocabulary - GDP (Gross Domestic Product) - the sum total of the goods and services (C+I+G+X-M) - PPF (Production Possibilities Frontier) - the maximum output that can be produced with limited resources

This article mentions that the GDP of Japan will decrease greatly due to the earthquake. The earthquake caused a damage that could top $300 billion. That is a huge loss to Japan and its people. What this article says about GDP is completely untrue. Instead of the GDP decreasing, it's actually going to INCREASE. Because of the reconstruction that is going to happen all over Japan, the GDP should in fact increase dramatically. However, what WILL decrease is the PPF. Because of the earthquake, a lot of natural resources will be destroyed, so will a lot of crops and land. Therefore, the PPF for agriculture vs. industrial products will decrease significantly. This also proves that GDP is not a good measure of a country's economy, for they can be spending a lot of money, but that says nothing about the country's actual economic status.