software & investment

[Doug Henwood]

Well it turns out the revisions of U.S. GDP to be published in 
October will include software as business investment (which does 
appear in GDP) and not an intermediate cost (which doesn't). This 
will have the effect of adding about 1.5 percentage points to GDP. 
They estimate the useful life of software at 3-5 years, which is how 
it will be depreciated.

This, and other revisions, are explained in an article in the August 
issue of the Survey of Current Business 
<http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/an1.htm>.

Doug