Economists, politicians, and voters have begun to notice a disconnect between the official economic statistics and the public's well-being. Please offer your perspective on GDP as a measure of economic development.

In your answer, please define what is GDP, and how it is calculated. Differentiate nominal GDP from purchasing parity GDP, and include comment on per capita GDP (nominal vs. GDP). Identify some of the GDP shortcomings and why it may not be an optimal economic measurement. An important aspect when analyzing GDP is to account for inflation. Explain how inflation is measured, and how it is accounted for in the computation of GDP, basically identifying/explaining real GDP. To fully evaluate the economic development of a country, what metric would you consider in addition to GDP, and why?