joining us in new york is zackary carabel, writing an "edgy optimist column" for roiters. these decide election issues. you go into this historically and look the gdp and say these things came out of the depression, they were needed back then, and you said in the book that the world those numbers measured back then was a world of nation states making stuff. are the numbers anacaristic and out of such with the world. >> i won't say they are acronystic, but they are increasingly so. we live in an economy the united states of services. it's not grounded on factories making stuff. that's a huge source of political, social and economic concern. we have a set of numbers. they don't do a good job of app turing intellectual or ideal outlets. most of us didn't notice that of the bureau of economics became bigger, because they tried to factor in intellectual property. or lady gaga, and the work going in to sell. >> for all the flaws, how do they decide how much to stimulate the economy or what to pull back. >> there are two things going on. useful numbers, whether it's the u.s. gove