My favourite video on GDP

Although it is focussed on the U.S economy, this five minute video is a cracker because it covers a number of issues about GDP that students find difficult to grasp, in an engaging way.

As well as the basics on what GDP actually is, the video covers
- the treatment of imports
- new vs used goods and services
- counting only final (and not intermediate) goods and services
- adjusting for level of home ownership.

I show the video and then bring up these four points and get the students to recall what the video says about them.

The video is from slatev.com and comes from the “Planet Money series. It can be accessed here.

Also from the Slate V site is a video on a new product from Lego - the OWS version. May not be suitable for showing in class because of some the language but very funny regardless. It can be found here