SECOND QUARTER GROSS OUTPUT AND B2B INDEX INCREASE, STILL NO SIGNIFICANT GROWTH OF THE U.S. ECONOMY.

By Mark Skousen

Washington, DC (Thursday, November 3, 2016):  Gross output, the top line of national income accounting, increased 1.1% in the second quarter of 2016, according to data released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  It is still sluggish and without indication of significant growth.  While the overall economy showed signs of growth, industries in the early stages of production are struggling according to economic data released today.

The Skousen B2B Index, a measure of business spending throughout the supply chain, moved into positive territory after falling for three quarters in a row.  The B2B Index change versus prior quarter in nominal term is currently at +1.1%.  The small increase is a positive sign.  However, unless the trend continues for the remainder of the year, the threat of a potential mild business recession still remains as we approach 2017.

Based on data released today by the BEA and adjusted to include all sales throughout the production process, nominal adjusted GO increased 1.1 % in the 2nd quarter of 2016, slightly better than the increase in the 1st quarter of 2011 (+0.3%) [1].  Adjusted GO was almost $39.5 trillion in the 2nd quarter, more than double the size of GDP ($18.45 trillion), which measures final output only.  Nominal GDP, the bottom line of national income accounting, rose 0.92% in the 2nd quarter versus the previous quarter (3.7% annualized).

Supply chain activity varied among various sectors significantly in the 2nd quarter, with significant declines in early-stage production.  Compared in real terms to the previous quarter, mining activity fell by another -12.6% in Q2 after declining -18.7% in Q1.  The Construction sector declined -7.5% after showing a +9.4% growth in the previous quarter.  The information sector also reversed course and declined -2.3% in Q2 after a 5.6 increase in Q1 2016.

The Professional, scientific, and technical services sector made a positive contribution and increased 3.6%.  However, that is less than half the growth rate (+8.8%) from Q1. The sector that increased more than previous quarter was Health care and social sciences, which grew by almost 10%.  This is higher by a third compared to the Q1 result of +7.5%

While the Retail sector was slightly higher (1.78%) in Q2 2016 versus the previous quarter, the Wholesale sector was down (-1.80%).  This is another indicator that spending in early stages is still struggling.

Government spending (11% share of total GO) was flat (+0.13%) with federal spending growing a bit more (0.21%) than local government, which grew only 0.09%.

Gross output (GO) and Gross domestic product (GDP)are complementary statistics in national income accounting.  GO is an attempt to measure the “make” economy; i.e., total economic activity at all stages of production, similar to the “top line” (revenues/sales) of a financial accounting statement.  In April 2014, the BEA began to measure GO on a quarterly basis along with GDP.

GDP  is an attempt to measure the “use” economy, i.e., the value of finished goods and services ready to be used by consumers, business and government. GDP is similar to the “bottom line” (gross profits) of an accounting statement, which determined the “value added” or the value of final use.

GO tends to be more sensitive to the business cycle, and more volatile, than GDP. During the financial crisis of 2008-09, GO fell much faster than GDP, and afterwards, recovered more quickly than GDP. Still, it wasn’t until late 2013 that GO fully recovered from its peak in 2007. The fact that the adjusted GO reversed course and grew faster than GDP is a positive sign.  However, GO growth will have to increase significantly in upcoming quarters to suggest that the economic recovery continues into 2017.

Real Business Spending (B2B) Suffers Slight Decline

We have also created a new business-to-business (B2B) index based on GO data.  It measures all the business spending in the supply chain and new private capital investment.  Nominal B2B activity increased 1.1% compared to the previous quarter to $22.5 billion.  Meanwhile, consumer spending rose 1.6% to $12.7 billion in Q2.

“The GO data and my own B2B Index demonstrate that total US economic activity has picked up slight,” stated Mark Skousen, editor of Forecasts & Strategies and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University. “B2B spending is in fact a pretty good indicator of where the economy is headed, since it measures spending in the entire supply chain, and it indicates tepid growth at this stage, despite desperate efforts by the Federal Reserve and the federal government to stimulate the economy.”

Skousen champions Gross Output as a more comprehensive measure of economic activity. “GDP leaves out the supply chain and business to business transactions in the production of intermediate inputs,” he notes. “That’s a big part of the economy.  GO includes B2B activity that is vital to the production process. No one should ignore what is going on in the supply chain of the economy.”

Skousen first introduced Gross Output as a macroeconomic tool in his work The Structure of Production (New York University Press, 1990). A new third edition was published in late 2015, and is now available on Amazon.

Click here: Structure of Production on Amazon

The BEA’s decision in 2014 to publish GO on a quarterly basis in its “GDP by Industry” data is a major achievement in national income accounting. GO is the first output statistic to be published on a quarterly basis since GDP was invented in the 1940s.  With GO and GDP being produced on a timely basis, the federal government now offers a complete system of accounts. As Dale Jorgenson, Steve Landefeld, and William Nordhaus conclude in their book, A New Architecture for the U. S. National Accounts, “Gross output [GO] is the natural measure of the production sector, while net output [GDP] is appropriate as a measure of welfare. Both are required in a complete system of accounts.”

Skousen adds, “Gross Output and GDP are complementary aspects of the economy, but GO does a better job of measuring total economic activity and the business cycle, and demonstrates that business spending is more significant than consumer spending,” he says. “By using GO data, we see that consumer spending is actually only about a third of economic activity, not two-thirds that is often reported by the media. As the chart above demonstrates, business spending is in fact almost twice the size of consumer spending in the US economy.”

Note: Ned Piplovic assisted in providing technical data for this release.

For More Information

The GO data released by the BEA can be found at www.bea.gov under “Quarterly GDP by Industry.” Click on interactive tables “GDP by Industry” and go to “Gross Output by Industry.” Or go to this link directly: http://www.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?ReqID=51&step=1#reqid=51&step=3&isuri=1&5102=15

For more information on Gross Output (GO), the Skousen B2B Index, and their relationship to GDP, see the following:

Mark Skousen, “At Last, a Better Economic Measure” lead editorial, Wall Street Journal, April 23, 2014: http://on.wsj.com/PsdoLM

Steve Forbes, Forbes Magazine (April 14, 2014): “New, Revolutionary Way To Measure The Economy Is Coming — Believe Me, This Is A Big Deal”:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2014/03/26/this-may-save-the-economoy-from-keynesians-and-spend-happy-pols/

Mark Skousen, Forbes Magazine (December 16, 2013): “Beyond GDP: Get Ready For A New Way To Measure The Economy”:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/11/29/beyond-gdp-get-ready-for-a-new-way-to-measure-the-economy/

Steve Hanke, Globe Asia (July 2014): “GO: J. M. Keynes Versus J.-B. Say,” http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/go-jm-keynes-versus-j-b-say

New:  Mark Skousen, “Linking Austrian Economics to Keynesian Economics,” Journal of Private Enterprise, Winter, 2015:  http://journal.apee.org/index.php?title=Parte7_Journal_of_Private_Enterprise_vol_30_no_4.pdf

To interview Dr. Mark Skousen on this press release, contact him at [email protected], or Ned Piplovic, Media Relations at [email protected].

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[1] The BEA currently uses a limited measure of total sales of goods and services in the production process. Once products are fabricated and packaged at the manufacturing stage, the BEA’s GO only adds “net” sales at the wholesale and retail level. Its official GO for the 2016 2^nd quarter is $32 trillion.  But by including gross sales at the wholesale and retail level, the adjusted GO is $39.5 trillion in Q2 2016.  Thus, the BEA omits $7.5 trillion in business-to-business (B2B) transactions in its GO statistics.  We include them as a legitimate economic activity that should be accounted for in GO, which we call Adjusted GO.  See the new introduction to Mark Skousen, The Structure of Production, 3rd ed. (New York University Press, 2015), pp. xv-xvi.