The Current State of the U.S. Economy
The United States economy is racing ahead at dangerous speeds, and it may be too late to prevent the return of widespread inflation. Ideally the economy should move ahead gradually and grow at a steady manageable rate. Mae West once stated “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful” and it seems the U.S. Treasury Secretary agrees. The Secretary announced that due to our increasing surplus and booming economy, instead of having an outsized tax cut, we should use the surplus to further pay down the national debt. A tax cut, though most Americans would favor it initially, would prove counter productive. Cutting taxes would over stimulate an already raging economy, and enhance the possibilities of an increase in the rate of inflation. Paying off the national debt would actually help lower interest rates and boost investments, and therefore further increase the wealth of the population, while keeping inflation at bay.
It seems Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan beat the Treasury secretary to it. Greenspan could not wait for the economy to fix itself by paying of the debt. The United States economy is roaring ahead at about 5% annual growth rate, much faster then the federal reserve considers safe. In an attempt to keep inflation under wraps and fix the imbalance of the economy, the Federal Reserve raised federal fund rates half a point, overnight, to 6.5%, the highest in nine years. However the fed is not sure this wil...
... strength of imaginary wealth, the government bubble (mortgages and bonds) is propping us up now. The pressure within the bubble will grow so great that the Fed will soon only have two options – 1. Finally contract the money supply and let interest rates spike -- which will cause immensely more pain than if we let this happen in 2002 or 2008, or 2. Keep pumping more dollars into the economy, causing hyperinflation and all the evils that come with it. The politically easier choice will be the latter, wiping out the dollar through hyperinflation. The grown up choice would be the former, electing for some painful tightening, which will also entail the federal government admitting that it cannot fulfill all the promises it has made, and it cannot repay everything that it owes. Regardless, well get the big crash. The longer we wait, the bigger the explosion will be.
The United States is the leading economy across the globe and experienced several tribulations in the recent past following the 2008 global recession. Despite these recent challenges, there are expectations among policymakers and financial experts that the country will experience solid economic growth. Actually, financial analysts have stated that the U.S. economy will be characterized by increased consumer spending, increased investments by businesses, reduced rate of unemployment, and reduction in government cut. Some analysts have also stated that the country’s economy will strengthen in 2014 with an average of 2.7 percent or more. However, these predictions can only be understood through an analysis of the current macroeconomic situation in the United States.
Every day in New York City, hundreds of people walk past a huge digital billboard with giant numbers across its face. Each person who walks past this billboard sees a slightly different arrangement of numbers, growing larger every second. This board is the National Debt Clock, representing the over 14 trillion dollars currently owed by the United States. While some people claim that the national debt is caused by the falling economy, most maintain that the debt itself causes the poor economy (Budget Deficits 2007). Rising debt leads to higher interest and investment rates, and cuts into our national savings. Ignoring the national debt leaves the major burden of paying it off to later generations, while meanwhile allowing our country’s economy to further drop and our dependency on other nations to rise.
The national debt is usually a frightening topic citizens of any country, however, in the United States, twenty trillion dollars of national debt is one of the major fears of the economy. Along with this fear comes every politician claiming to be the person to lower this astronomical debt to ease concerns in the modern American economy. In Hamilton’s Blessing, John Steele Gordon tries to alleviate these concerns by showing a plethora of benefits and good the debt has been able to do throughout the history of the United States. The central premise of the book and the main guideline for John Steele Gordon’s thinking is that the debt was used to save the Union in the 1860’s, the American economy in the 1930’s, and the wellbeing of mankind during
The business cycle is the short-run alternation between economic downturns and economic upturns (Investopedia n.d.). A recession is an economic downturn and happens in every country and some recessions are worse than others and the output of GDP and employment are falling farther and faster. The great depression lasted from 1929-1933 and was a deep prolonged downturn in the business cycle before a recovery/expansion of the business cycle occurred and GDP and employment started to rise (Krugman & Wells. 2012). The next recession lasted from 1981-1982 and was comparatively smaller than the first (Krugman & Wells. 2012). More recently in 2001 a slump in the economy was noted and was followed by the great rescission of 2007-2009 (Krugman & Wells. 2012). Recession is defined as a “period of at least two consecutive quarters (a quarter is three months) during which the total output of the economy shrinks” (Krugman & Wells. 2012). In the United States the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is assigning the task of determining when a recession begins and the NBER looks at a variety of economic indicators such as employment and production (Krugman & Wells. 2012). Every business cycle recession has a negative impact on the economy the recession’s deferrer on the strength of the impact on the country. Consider the two charts for Figure 21-5 of the more recent recessions of 2001 and 2007. The Recession of 2001 did not last as long as the recession of 2007 and did not have as much of an economical hardship on the business cycle and as shown 2007 dipped greatly in industrial production. In the second chart it demonstrates a recession at the point the economy turns from expansion to recession or the business-cycle peak. Then in the char...
As our deficits continue to rise, our government should focus on ways to increase revenue and reduce the national debt. According to the US Debt Clock, if the U.S economy were to suddenly crash, each citizen would owe $202,835. That is more than the average citizen were to makes in 4.4 years. In 2014, a wage survey concluded that the national average wage per citizen was $46,481.52 (Social Security). If the United States continues to ignore the debt that is lingering, the countries that we owe money to could cut us off from trade. If this were to occur, not only would it hurt our economy, but we may end up in another great depression. China, Japan and Brazil are just a few countries that the government is in debt to. Even though there are other areas of concern such as military, education, and social security that the government needs to allocate spend to, reducing the national debt is what our government officials should be their primary expenditure considering how large our debt has gotten to.
Public debt, which comes from securities and bonds issued by the United States Treasury, is responsible for over 60 percent of the debt (“Debt Position and Activity Report” 1). These debts are being held by the public inside and outside the US. Over 25 percent of the debts are held by foreign governments, in which China and Japan accounts for almost half of the sum (“Treasury Bulletin: September 2009” 60).
He received strong support from leading politicians for the prestigious position, including President George Bush. Therefore, in January 2006, Bernanke began his first term as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. As the chairman, Bernanke led the way to resolve America’s biggest economic crisis since the “Great Depression”. He sought to find solutions to aid failing financial institutions in 2008, including supporting the takeover of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase and the $85 billion bailout of A.I.G (biography.com). Unlike many of the former chairmen, Bernanke pushed to expand the open market operations when lowering the interest rates wasn’t enough. The interest were as low as 0.1%, yet it wasn’t enough to put the economy back on track. Therefore, through the orders of the chairman, the Fed began to buy treasury bonds to speed up the growth of the
Thomas Jefferson once stated, "I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt" (Bussing-Burks, 7). A lot has changed since Jefferson was President two hundred years ago, but the need to be financially solvent is something that will always be necessary for the United States to maintain its leadership position in the world. The United States of America currently owes $16.7 trillion in debt primarily as a result of the government’s spending practices during the last ten years. Two wars, several fiscal collapses, the bursting of the bubble in the housing market, looming medical care costs from an expanded healthcare access law, and a recession may be the scapegoats, but the real issue is fiscal irresponsibility by the parties in power (Hiber, 76). One idea that has been discussed not only in Congress, but also on prime time news networks is the passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment, which would require that Congress balances the country’s budget every fiscal year (American Government, 1). A Balanced Budget Amendment could provide an exception for times of war, national emergency, or recession, or allow the legislature to suspend the rule by a supermajority vote (Lee, 2). A balanced budget is critical because budget deficits can only be funded by additional increases in the level of the national debt, which can place an undue burden on future generations to repay such debt, create annual interest costs that consume an increasing portion of tax revenues and crowd out spending on current programs, and result in potential reliance on other countries in order to make financial ends meet.
One thing that I have learned about college is that you have to sometimes talk about things that make you uncomfortable or scared in order to learn. I do not think I am alone in saying that the United States’ current debt situation is terrifying. Ten trillion dollars alone is an expansive and unimaginable amount of money, and since PBS produced Ten Trillion and Counting in 2009, the national debt has grown to twenty-one trillion. As stated, the documentary was produced during the first months of former President Barack Obama’s first term and focused on former President George W. Bush’s relationship with national debt during his eight year tenure. Ten Trillion and Counting explains some of the questionable decisions that former President Bush made, especially regarding fiscal policy.
It also has changed our stock market a lot. We are having more foreclosures on homes because of this national debt affecting the
Economics Define unemployment? Provide an example of the three types of unemployment. Which type of unemployment is most problematic and why? What type of unemployment problem(s) does the U.S. currently have and why? What is a possible solution to the unemployment problem(s)?
Many of the “Elite” financial figures could not give a definite answer about why this crisis occurred as well as stated by many of the people interviewed, “We don’t know how it happened.” Many young brokers working for JP Morgan back in the middle of the 90’s believed they could come up with a way to cut risk, credit derivatives. Credit Derivatives are just a way of using other methods to separate and transfer risk to someone else other than the vender and free up capital. They tested their experiment with Exxon Mobile who were facing millions of dollars in damage for the Valdez Oil Spill back in 1989 by extending their line of credit. This also gave birth to credit default swaps (CDS) which a company wants to borrow money from someone who will buy their bond and pay the buyer back with interest over time. Once the JP Morgan and Exxon Mobile credit default swap happened, others followed in their path and the CDS began booming throughout the 90’s. The issue was that many banks in...
...onomy growth has stalled dramatically. The federal government creates more money to cover the interest of debt payments which just postpones the inevitable of default or bankruptcy. People need to realize that when they buy what they cannot afford with credit they are contributing to what could be the crash of the American economy.
Unfortunately, there are many Americans out of work in today’s current declining economy. Unemployment can be defined as a person who is out of work involuntary, not by choice. These people are looking jobs and available to start work. Being unemployed can be disheartening and deciding what the next step is can be challenging. Underemployed can be described as being inadequately employed, such as a low-paying job that requires fewer skills than one possess. (Daly, Hobijn, and Kwok 2015) Making ends meet can be difficult for one who has been affected by this economy over the past few years. America still has a high unemployment rate since the decline of the current job market. And many Americans are struggling to establish the skills needed for employment, or the underemployed are force to lower they skill to make a profit. America’s economic status has force the underemployed and unemployed to make ends meet with the current jobs available. And last but not least some have also utilized these difficult times to venture into new discoveries to make life hassle free. So, we wonder is Americans giving up in today’s economy or do they settle for lower end job to establish a steady income to make ends.