There's one statistic that rules them all when it comes to keeping track of the economy: gross domestic product (GDP). It's the sum of all final transactions, so all the goods or services bought and sold, in an economy. GDP tells us how hot the economy is running, or how cool — like if we might be heading into a recession. And it's an important tool to compare countries, policies, and politicians. It's used by the U.S. government to allocate money and by businesses to make decisions about the future. For close to a century the building blocks of GDP have been the same. Now Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, has <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/11/nx-s1-5323155/economic-data-reliability-trump-howard-lutnick">proposed</a> a big change: taking government spending out of GDP. On today's show, can the U.S. change how it measures GDP? We talk with a former head of the BEA — about what he thinks they're likely to do now, and about the pressure he faced while trying to compile GDP for nearly two decades. Turns out, people have always been trying to bend it to make whatever grand project they're working on look better. Find more Planet Money: <a href="https://n.pr/3h92GwS">Facebook</a> / <a href="https://n.pr/3FqLuws">Instagram</a> / <a href="https://n.pr/3sGZdrq">TikTok</a> / Our weekly <a href="https://www.npr.org/newsletter/money?utm_campaign=Digital+to+PM&utm_medium=bitly&utm_source=NPRorg+Story+Page">Newsletter</a>. Listen free at these links: <a href="http://n.pr/PM-digital">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://n.pr/3gTkQlR">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://n.pr/3gTkQlR">the NPR app</a> or anywhere you get podcasts. Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ <a href="http://n.pr/PM-digital">in Apple Podcasts</a> or at <a href="https://n.pr/3HlREPz">plus.npr.org/planetmoney</a>. Learn more about sponsor message choices: <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a> <a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>

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Can we just change how we measure GDP?

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