U.S. Economy

БОЛЬШАЯ ЛЕНИНГРАДСКАЯ БИБЛИОТЕКА - РЕФЕРАТЫ - U.S. Economy

U.S. Economy

United States (Economy)

INTRODUCTION

The U.S. economy is immense. In 1998 it included more than 270 million

consumers and 20 million businesses. U.S. consumers purchased more than

$5.5 trillion of goods and services annually, and businesses invested

over a trillion dollars more for factories and equipment. Over 80 percent

of the goods and services purchased by U.S. consumers each year are made

in the United States; the rest are imported from other nations. In

addition to spending by private households and businesses, government

agencies at all levels (federal, state, and local) spend roughly an

additional $1.5 trillion a year. In total, the annual value of all goods

and services produced in the United States, known as the Gross Domestic

Product (GDP), was $9.25 trillion in 1999.

Those levels of production, consumption, and spending make the U.S.

economy by far the largest economy the world has ever known—despite the

fact that some other nations have far more people, land, or other

resources. Through most of the 20th century, U.S. citizens also enjoyed

the highest material standards of living in the world. Some nations have

higher per capita (per person) incomes than the United States. However,

these comparisons are based on international exchange rates, which set

the value of a country’s currency based on a narrow range of goods and

services traded between nations. Most economists agree that the United

States has a higher per capita income based on the total value of goods

and services that households consume. American prosperity has attracted

worldwide attention and imitation. There are several key reasons why the

U.S. economy has been so successful and other reasons why, in the 21st

century, it is possible that some other industrialized nations will

surpass the U.S. standard of living. To understand those historical and

possible future events, it is important first to understand what an

economic system is and how that system affects the way people make

decisions about buying, selling, spending, saving, investing, working,

and taking time for leisure activities.

Capital, savings, and investment are taken up in the fourth section,

which explains how the long-term growth of any economy depends upon the

relationship between investments in capital goods (inventories and the

facilities and equipment used to make products) and the level of saving

in that economy. The next section explains the role money and financial

markets play in the economy. Labor markets, the topic of section six, are

also extremely important in the U.S. economy, because most people earn

their incomes by working for wages and salaries. By the same token, for

most firms, labor is the most costly input used in producing the things

the firms sell.

The role of government in the U.S. economy is the subject of section

seven. The government performs a number of economic roles that private

markets cannot provide. It also offers some public services that elected

officials believe will be in the best interests of the public. The

relationship between the U.S. economy and the world economy is discussed

in section eight. Section nine looks at current trends and issues that

the U.S economy faces at the start of the 21st century. The final section

provides an overview of the kinds of goods and services produced in the

United States.

U.S. ECONOMIC SYSTEM

An economic system refers to the laws and institutions in a nation that

determine who owns economic resources, how people buy and sell those

resources, and how the production process makes use of resources in

providing goods and services. The U.S. economy is made up of individual

people, business and labor organizations, and social institutions. People

have many different economic roles—they function as consumers, workers,

savers, and investors. In the United States, people also vote on public

policies and for the political leaders who set policies that have major

economic effects. Some of the most important organizations in the U.S.

economy are businesses that produce and distribute goods and services to

consumers. Labor unions, which represent some workers in collective

bargaining with employers, are another important kind of economic

organization. So, too, are cooperatives—organizations formed by producers

or consumers who band together to share resources—as well as a wide range

of nonprofit organizations, including many charities and educational

organizations, that provide services to families or groups with special

problems or interests.

For the most part, the United States has a market economy in which

individual producers and consumers determine the kinds of goods and

services produced and the prices of those products. The most basic

economic institution in market economies is the system of markets in

which goods and serv