Yet the idea would be once again picked up in the 1950s by an unlikely group: economists. During WWII, economists had begun using Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a measure of economic output, as a way to keep the economy afloat. GDP is a simple formula, aggregating private and public spending, investments and trade. Fresh out of the war and into a new economic system forged in Bretton Woods, economists became convinced that the way forward relied in formulas, algorithms and models.
