The economy of America

The economy of USA 

USA GDP figures

The US is currently the biggest economy in the world, its economy is worth a massive $15 trillion dollars today, this is very productive for a country that has 4 times less than the population of China and half the population of India. Only 50 years ago, the USA economy had $579 billion GDP comparing that to the $15 trillion dollars today the economy has become 26 times bigger than what it was back then. This is a huge rate of growth for the US's GDP however, China's economy valued at $7.2 trillion dollars was worth only 50 million 50 years ago. That means that there GDP has grown by a staggering 144 times the size of what it was 50 years ago. This shows that it roughly 5 to 6 years time China will surpass the US economy providing these rates of GDP growth remain the same.

Population 

The population of America currently stands at around 311 million people. Over the last 50 years the country has grown slowly in comparison to rival countries such as China. Fifty years ago the population of America stood at around 226 million people which means there was an increase of 85 million. Therefore the country grew at a rate of 38% over the last 50 years. However, America still has the third largest population in the world and roughly 1 in every 25 people are American.

Imports

In the first half of this year,United States imports were worth 227.9 Billion dollars, the US is the second largest importer in the world. Its main imports are non-auto consumer goods, fuels, production machinery and equipment, non-fuel industrial supplies, motor vehicles and parts, food and beverages.US gets its  main imports from the European Union, China, Canada, Mexico and Japan.

Exports 

In the first half of this year,United States were worth 185 billion dollars, which is $43 billion dollars lower than the amount of imports to the country. However, the United States is the third largest exporter in the world, selling machinery and equipment, industrial supplies, non-auto consumer goods, motor vehicles and parts, aircraft and parts, food, feed and beverages as its main exports. The US mainly exports to Canada, European Union, Mexico, China and Japan. 

50 facts about the American economy 

1. A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be “low income” or are living in poverty.

2. Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be “low income” or impoverished.

3. If the number of Americans that “wanted jobs” was the same today as it was back in 2007, the “official” unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.

4. The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is nowover 40 weeks.

5. One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.

6. There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.

7. Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8 percent once you account for inflation.

8. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.

9. A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.

10. According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

11. Back in 1980, less than 30 percent of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40 percent of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

12. Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job. In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.

13. One recent survey found that one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.

14. The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S. households declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.

15. According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.

16. As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married.

17. The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.

18. In Stockton, California home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were at when the housing market peaked.

19. Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 59 months in a row.

20. If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.

21. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant. That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.

22. New home construction in the United States is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011.

23. 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.

24. Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

25. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5 percent of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3 percent.

26. One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

27. If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

28. The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.

29. It is being projected that the U.S. trade deficit for 2011 will be 558.2 billion dollars.

30. The retirement crisis in the United States just continues to get worse. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.

31. Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

32. According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America’s biggest companies rose by 36.5 percent in just one recent 12 month period.

33. Today, the “too big to fail” banks are larger than ever.  The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.

34. The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.

35. According to an analysis of Census Bureau data done by the Pew Research Center, the median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greaterthan the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.

36. If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.

37. A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7 percent) than has ever been measured before.

38. Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.

39. Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

40. Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America.  According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4 percent of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1 percent of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6 percent of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6 percent of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

41. Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

42. In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7 percent of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.

43. A staggering 48.5 percent of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

44. Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP. Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.

45. For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars. That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.

46. If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.

47. Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars. When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.

48. If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.

49. The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.

50. During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

Type of economy

America is considered to be a mixed economy, this is where the country is run by a consistency of both public and private companies. Public companies in America have their fair dominance of different markets around the world. For example, Apple dominates a large proportion of the music player market, Microsoft dominating a lot of the software market and Nike dominates the sports wear market. America also has many private companies such as Mars a large food company and there are also many other private companies such as the US health service which is private all around the country. 

Joint Venture

Economic factors 

Exchange rates 

US Dollar	1.00 USD	inv. 1.00 USD
Euro	0.794850	1.258099
British Pound	0.630298	1.586550
Indian Rupee	55.527500	0.018009
Australian Dollar	0.968523	1.032500
Canadian Dollar	0.986250	1.013942
Emirati Dirham	3.673300	0.272235
Swiss Franc	0.954500	1.047669
Chinese Yuan Renminbi	6.349800	0.157485
Malaysian Ringgit	3.124850	0.320015
New Zealand Dollar	1.244555	0.803500

This table shows some of the current exchange rates for the US dollar. As the table shows the currency is very weak against the pound however against the rate of India and China the US dollar is very strong. This would be good for America to import goods from these countries as importers will benefit from produce being cheaper than other countries. America is likely to lose out on business with other countries because of China and India's low exchange rate values importers will more likely buy from these countries.

Interest rates

Since the recession of 2008, interest rates in America have fell from around 6% to record lows of around 0.25% today. This indicates that banks are desperate for people to take loans by making the interest rate so low. If a person took a loan of $1000 they would have to pay back only $1002.50, which is hardly any gain of profit for most banks. However, this is more likely to stimulate the economy because if more people take loans they have more disposable income therefore they will spend more on consumer goods which helps raise the levels of GDP.