AnOutlineoftheU.S.Economy-Guangzhou,China.docVIP

An Outline??????of the??????????U.S. Economy This volume was prepared for the U.S. Department of State by Christopher Conte, a former editor and reporter for the Wall Street Journal, with Albert R. Karr, a former Wall Street Journal reporter. It updates several previous editions that had been issued by the U.S. Information Agency beginning in 1981. CONTENTS Continuity and Change How the U.S. Economy Works The U.S. Economy: A Brief History Small Business and the Corporation Stocks, Commodities, and Markets The Role of the Government in the Economy Monetary and Fiscal Policy American Agriculture: Its Changing Significance Labor in America: The Workers Role Foreign Trade and Global Economic Policies Afterword: Beyond Economics Glossary Continuity??????and?????????Change ?????The United States entered the 21st century with an economy that was bigger, and by many measures more successful, than ever. Not only had it endured two world wars and a global depression in the first half of the 20th century, but it had surmounted challenges ranging from a 40-year Cold War with the Soviet Union to extended bouts of sharp inflation, high unemployment, and enormous government budget deficits in the second half of the century. The nation finally enjoyed a period of economic calm in the 1990s: prices were stable, unemployment dropped to its lowest level in almost 30 years, the government posted a budget surplus, and the stock market experienced an unprecedented boom. ?????In 1998, Americas gross domestic product -- the total output of goods and services -- exceeded $8.5 trillion. Though the United States held less than 5 percent of the worlds population, it accounted for more than 25 percent of the worlds economic output. Japan, the worlds second largest economy, produced about half as much. And while Japan and many of the worlds other economies grappled with slow growth and other problems in the 1990s, the American economy recorded the longest uninterrupted perio