State of the Economy

U.S. has the largest economy and most technologically powerful in the world with a GDP per capita of $ 46,000. In this market economy, individuals and business firms make most decisions, and federal and state governments need to purchase goods and services primarily in the private market. U.S. companies business enjoy greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, to lay off surplus workers, and to develop new products. At the same time, face greater barriers to entering the markets of their rivals at home that foreign firms face entering U.S. markets. U.S. companiesare at or near the forefront of technological advances, especially in computers and medical aerospace, and military equipment, their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War II (Hodge, 15). The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a "labor market of two-tier" in which the bottom of the lack of education and professional / technical skills of the above and, increasingly , not to get a comparable salary raises, health insurance coverage and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in house earnings have gone to the peak 20% of households. The war in March-April 2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq and subsequent occupation of Iraq, required major changes in national resources to the military. Rising oil prices between 2005 and the first half of 2008, inflation and Unemployment threat, as higher gasoline prices ate consumer budgets. Imported oil accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. consumption. The long-term problems include inadequate investment in economic infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of a lack of aging, significant trade and budget, and stagnation of family income on economic groups lower. (Zeng, 6)

The merchandise trade deficit reached a record 840 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, before reducing to $ 450 million in 2009. The global economic downturn, the crisis sub-prime mortgages, the investment bank failures, falling housing prices and the credit crunch pushed the U.S. into recession in mid-2008. GDP contracted until the third quarter of 2009, making this the deepest crisis and longest since the Great Depression. To help stabilize economic markets, the U.S. Congress $ 700,000,000,000 established a Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in October 2008. The government used part of those funds to buy shares in U.S. banks and other developed companies. In January 2009, the U.S. Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed a bill an additional 787 billion dollars of fiscal stimulus that will be used more than 10 years - two thirds of the additional expense and third in tax cuts - to create jobs and help the economy recover. Approximately two thirds of these funds have been injected into the economy in late 2010. In March 2010, President Obama signed a law on health insurance reform legislation that will extend coverage to another 32 million Americans by 2016, through private health insurance for the general population and Medicaid the poor. In July 2010, the President signed ...