Looking for two responses that are good discussions for two points below.

1) GDP or Gross Domestic Product is a tool used to measure and assess all of the recorded economic activities within the US such as goods and services produced and incomes generated. In 2020, US GDP decreased by 29.7% due to the COVID-19 pandemic (The Bureau of Economic Analysis, n.d.). This was due to people staying at home during lockdowns resulting in less goods and services produced as well as less income generated. These decreases had negative impacts on individuals and businesses. Alternatively, in Q4 of 2022, GDP increased by 2.9% showing that overall consumer spending and incomes are increasing (The Bureau of Economic Analysis, n.d.). However, while GDP may be gradually increasing, this is due to higher costs of all goods and services produced during the current economic inflationary times. For example, I work for a regional CPA firm providing outsourced accounting services. Each year, my hourly chargeable rate for a client job increases as well as our total fees billed to a client. While it is normal that we occasionally increase rates, it has been much more prevalent due to my firm working to keep up with the current inflation. Since our costs are higher, our clients are spending more for our services. This will increase GDP because of the higher costs associated with our services. However, this may not necessarily be a positive outcome for our clients. While GDP does assess the spending and income habits of the US, it does not take into account the situations or fairness that affect individuals and businesses. Thus, higher GDP does not necessarily mean a better economy as it does not consider what is driving the increase. Therefore, while GDP drastically decreased during 2020, we are seeing it increase and will likely continue to see this in the future months to come. However, this will not necessarily coincide with individuals and businesses experiencing positive effects.

2) Gross domestic product is an important statistic to note when it comes to the economy. Gross domestic product as it is defined by the Bureau of Economic Analysis is "the value of the goods and services produced by the nation's economy less the value of the goods and services used up in production" (Mataloni, 2023). With this definition in mind it is imperative to know the historical perspective, current trends, and the future outlook of our economy. First, the historical perspective of real GDP had increased 2.1 percent in 2022 and 5.9 percent in 2021 (Mataloni, 2023). With the increase in real GDP percentage from 2022, came primarily from the increases in consumer spending, exports, private inventory investments, and nonresidential fixed investments. The increase in consumer spending had come from a result of a decrease in goods, so consumers were forced to spend more of their money. With the decrease in goods, it reflected decreases in food and beverages along with motor vehicles.

Discussing some of the current trends in GDP that we have seen, in comparison to the third quarter of 2022, there has been a deceleration in real GDP in the fourth quarter which primarily reflects decreases in exports and decelerations in nonresidential fixed investments, state and local government spending, and consumer spending. The current-dollar GDP has increased 6.5 percent at an annual rate which equates to $408.6 billion in Q4 of 2022. In Q3 though, GDP had increased 7.7 percent, or $475.4 billion (Mataloni, 2023). Current trends also indicate personal savings rates comparing 2022's Q3 and Q4. In Q4, personal saving was as high as $552.9 billion and Q3 savings were $507.7 billion. As percentages of disposable income, Q4 was 2.9 percent compared to Q3's 2.7 percent.

In terms of the future outlook for the US economy on GDP, there are a few different estimates that are made throughout the year. There are three different types of estimates which are advance, second, and third respectively. The advance estimate will not be released for 2023 Q1 until April 27 and July 27 for Q2. In addition to this information, I believe that because of the current economic weaknesses our GDP will slow down despite the GDP growth in Q3 and Q4 of 2022. I say this because of the continuous decreases in housing sales which have come as a result of high inflation rates. The Federal Reserve has continued to put strict policies in place to try to combat these inflation rates but the economy has proved that these strict policies will not completely fix the inflation problem anytime soon. Moreover, historical perspectives, current trends, and the future outlook of the US economy have many differences with the future outlook being the most unknown as we move further into 2023.