The Structure of Production: New Revised Edition

by Mark Skousen

In 2014, the U. S. government adopted a new quarterly statistic called gross output (GO), the most significance advance in national income accounting since gross domestic product (GDP) was developed in the 1940s. The announcement came as a triumph for Mark Skousen, who advocated GO nearly 25 years ago as an essential macroeconomic tool and a better way to measure the economy and the business cycle. Now it has become an official statistic issued quarterly by the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the U. S. Department of Commerce. In this new revised edition of Structure of Production, Skousen shows why GO is a more accurate and comprehensive measure of the economy because it includes business-to-business transactions that move the supply chain along to final use. (GDP measures the value of finished goods and services only, and omits B-to-B activity.) GO is an attempt to measure spending at all stages of production. Using GO, Skousen demonstrates that the supply-side of the business spending is far more important than consumer spending, is more consistent with economic growth theory, and a better measure of the business cycle. "

Genres: Economics

417 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

I am a professional economist, financial adviser, university professor, author and producer of FreedomFest, the largest annual gathering of free minds about liberty and freedom in the world. I edit the award-winning financial newsletter, Forecasts & Strategies (www.markskousen.com), and have authored many books on economics, finance, investing and Benjamin Franklin. I have been married to my wife Jo Ann for 35 years, and we have 5 children and 3 terrific grandsons.

Reviews

[Spawk Hw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Among the best books on production ever. Lays outa a very modern conception of the austrian theory of the trade cycle, and has a great chapter on the history of micro economics.

[Kristian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the clearest book written on Austrian Capital Theory that I have read thus far; I'm definitely glad I started with this instead of Bohm-Bawerk's work on Capital theory or even Richard von Strigl for that matter. This book is easily digestible and quite satisfying.

[Ronald J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview of the government's new measurement: Gross Output (what Skousen calls Gross Domestic Expenditure), and why it's a truer measure of economic activity than GDP. Also, he discusses the Austrian school's theory of business cycles and the gold standard.