Cleanroom

McIlvaine arranged route maps at the Chem Show by Product and Application. Here is one:

(1.) The U.S. probably expanded faster in the third quarter than initially estimated and weekly jobless claims likely rose a bit, according to economists polled by MarketWatch. Gross domestic product for the July-to-September period is forecast to be revised up to 3.2% from 2.8%, largely because inventories rose even faster than the preliminary report showed. Jobless claims, meanwhile, are predicted to increase to 325,000 in the week ended Nov. 30 from 316,000 in the prior week.

(2.) Austrian school economist Mark Skousen has labored mightily for a quarter of a century to persuade the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to publish a better measure of economic activity in the United States, and beginning in April, the BEA will start publishing the country’s Gross Output — the GO.

Said Skousen, “Starting [in] 1990, I have made the case that we needed a new statistic beyond GDP that measures spending throughout the entire production process, not just final output. GO is a move in that direction — a personal triumph 25 years in the making.”

Ever since the establishment of the international monetary system at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has informed and driven monetary policy, often with unintended and unhappy consequences. By misreading economic activity, interventionist politicians and economists have implemented policies that have later turned out to be too little too late or, more recently, way too much. The GO, on the other hand, measures intermediate economic activity at all stages of production, from raw materials to the retail outlet.

As Skousen explained, “While GDP is a good measure of national economic performance, it has a major flaw: in limiting itself to final output, GDP largely ignores or downplays the “make” economy — that is, the supply chain and intermediate stages of production needed to produce all those finished goods and services.

“This narrow focus of GDP has created much mischief in the media, government policy and boardroom decision-making….

“Since consumer spending [under GDP analysis] represents 70% or more of GDP … the media naively concludes that any slowdown in retail sales or government stimulus is necessarily bad for the economy….

“In short, by focusing only on final output, GDP underestimates the money spent and economic activity generated at earlier stages in the production process….

“Using GO as a more comprehensive measure of economic activity, spending by consumers turns out to represent around 40% of total year sales, not 70% as commonly reported.

“Spending by business … is substantially bigger, representing over 50% of economic activity.”

This aligns better with common-sense economic theory as well, that production precedes consumption, not the other way around. GO will also show that the real size of the U.S. economy isn't $16.8 trillion as is commonly acknowledged, but will come in at nearly twice that figure when it is released in April, according to Skousen.

Even so, with the update in place, GO will still leave out enormous parts of the economy, and will fail to measure the unmeasurables, such as quality of life, speed of information via the Internet, and caring for children at home by parents. It will fail to differentiate between “wasteful” spending — i.e., foreign wars and consequent loss of life and limb and destruction of property and war matériel — and “productive” spending. It will fail to measure the potential advantage of obtaining a college degree, or the disadvantage of taking up smoking.

It will count legal fees, repairing of property damage, and medical expenses as positives instead of negatives. It will allow for such silliness as counting the value of a new home being built, as well as the cost of razing it following a flood or a hurricane. It will count disasters as positives and imports of superior goods from abroad (instead of buying inferior ones locally) as negatives. It will continue to count borrowing as a good thing no matter how it is spent or by whom: individuals or governments. (The remaining text is not included in this sample.)

Japan's economy expanded at a slower pace than initially estimated in the third quarter of 2013, according to the government, sparking concern that the government's "Abenomics" policy mix may fail to help the nascent recovery gain momentum.

The world's third-biggest economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.1% in the three months through September in inflation-adjusted terms, downgraded from preliminary data against the backdrop of a downward revision to capital spending.

The July-September growth in real gross domestic product, the total value of goods and services produced at home, corresponded to a 0.3% gain from the previous quarter, posting the fourth straight quarter of increase, the Cabinet Office said.

The government said in the initial report, released Nov. 14, that the nation's economy expanded an annualized real 1.9% in the July-September period, following a revised 3.6% rise in the April-June period.

The latest figure suggested Japan's economy has been largely supported by public investment, not private sector growth, strengthening the view that the planned 3-percentage-point sales tax hike next April to 8% may weigh on consumer spending and investment, in turn dampening domestic demand. (The remaining text is not included in this sample.)

Saudi Arabia's gross domestic product grew 3.19% in the third quarter of 2013 in current prices compared with a 2.7% rise in the previous three months, the Central Department of Statistics reported.

The GDP value rose from SR675.19 billion in the third quarter of 2012 to SR696.7 billion. During the same period the GDP rose by 3.05% in real prices, the department said.

In the public sector the GDP fell by 18.52% to SR102.6 billion in current prices, compared to the same period in 2012. However, in real prices it showed a growth of 2.43%.

The private sector, on the other hand, achieved a growth of 6.53% in current prices in the third quarter of 2013 to reach SR244.08 billion compared to the figure of previous year, SR229.13 billion.

The construction and building sector and downstream industries showed big growth at the rate of 9.76% and 7.87% respectively. In stable prices, the sector’s growth rose by 3.31%. (The remaining text is not included in this sample.)

A complete analysis of GDP and monthly updates for individual countries are included as part of

This includes only projects where there was an update during the month. There are thousands of projects in the database

Project Title	First Entry Date	Location	Startup Date
Kelar power plant-BHP Billiton	8/1/2013	Chile	2016
Genesee 4,5 gas turbine power plant-Capital Power	5/1/2013	Canada	2020
Temple combined cycle expansion-Panda Power	4/1/2013	TX	2015
Mauban expansion-Electricity Gen. Public Co. of Thailand/Meralco	1/1/2013	Philippines	2017
Holland Board of Public Works combined cycle power plant	12/1/2012	MI	2016
Leichhardt power plant--APA Group/AGL Energy	11/1/2012	Australia	2015
Temple combined cycle-Panda Power Funds	4/1/2011	TX	2015
Saldanha Industrial Zone Power Plant	3/1/2011	South Africa	Unknown
Diamantina 1 combined cycle-APA Group/AGL Energy	1/1/2011	Australia	2014
Katwa power project-West Bengal Power Development Corp.	7/1/2010	India	Unknown
Jamshoro supercritical -Water and Power Development Authority	5/1/2010	Pakistan	2016
Sutton combined cycle-Progress Energy	1/1/2010	NC	2013
Kozloduy 7 nuclear power plant expansion	12/1/2009	Bulgaria	2023
Nyagan combined cycle power plant-GRES	8/1/2009	Russia	2014
Opole expansion-Polska Grupa Energetyczna	2/1/2009	Poland	2018
Rajpura supercritical power plant-Punjab State Electricity Board	11/1/2008	India	2014
Long Phu 1 supercritical power plant-PetroVietnam	8/1/2008	Vietnam	2016
Balkhash power project-Samruk-Kazyna	4/1/2008	Kazakhstan	2018
Sherman combined cycle power plant-Panda	3/1/2008	TX	2014
Nine Mile Point nuclear power plant-UniStar Nuclear Energy	11/1/2007	NY	Cancelled
Walsum 10-STEAG/EVN	12/1/2006	Germany	2013
Lunen-Trianel	12/1/2006	Germany	2013
Newport combined cycle-Severn Power (Dong Energy)	11/1/2005	UK	2010
Nelson combined cycle plant-Invenergy	8/1/2000	IL	2014
Barh I (1-3) supercritical-National Thermal Power Corp.		India	2014
Marion-Guadalupe combined cycle project Texas Independent Energy		TX	2000

New power generation projects are tracked in two publications. Fossil and Nuclear Power Generation includes both market forecasts and project data. World Power Generation Projects has just the project data.