United States/

The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $47,400. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. US business firms 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, they face higher barriers to enter their rivals’ home markets than foreign firms face entering US markets. US firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances, especially in computers and in medical, aerospace, and military equipment; their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War II. The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a “two-tier labor market” in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households. The war in March-April 2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq, and the subsequent occupation of Iraq, required major shifts in national resources to the military. Soaring oil prices between 2005 and the first half of 2008 threatened inflation and unemployment, as higher gasoline prices ate into consumers’ budgets. Imported oil accounts for about 60% of US consumption. Long-term problems include inadequate investment in economic infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging population, sizable trade and budget deficits, and stagnation of family income in the lower economic groups. The merchandise trade deficit reached a record $840 billion in 2008 before shrinking to $506 billion in 2009, and ramping back up to $630 billion in 2010. The global economic downturn, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, investment bank failures, falling home prices, and tight credit pushed the United States into a recession by mid-2008. GDP contracted until the third quarter of 2009, making this the deepest and longest downturn since the Great Depression. To help stabilize financial markets, the US Congress established a $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in October 2008. The government used some of these funds to purchase equity in US banks and other industrial corporations, much of which had been returned to the government by early 2011. In January 2009 the US Congress passed and President Barack OBAMA signed a bill providing an additional $787 billion fiscal stimulus to be used over 10 years - two-thirds on additional spending and one-third on tax cuts - to create jobs and to help the economy recover. Approximately two-thirds of these funds were injected into the economy by the end of 2010. In March 2010, President OBAMA signed a health insurance reform bill into law that will extend coverage to an additional 32 million American citizens by 2016, through private health insurance for the general population and Medicaid for the impoverished. In July 2010, the president signed the DODD-FRANK Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a bill designed to promote financial stability by protecting consumers from financial abuses, ending taxpayer bailouts of financial firms, dealing with troubled banks that are “too big to fail,” and improving accountability and transparency in the financial system - in particular, by requiring certain financial derivatives to be traded in markets that are subject to government regulation and oversight. In late 2010, the US Federal Reserve Bank (The Fed) announced that it would purchase $600 billion worth of US Government bonds by June 2011, in an attempt to keep interest rates from rising and snuffing out the nascent recovery.

$14.72 trillion (2010 est.)

$14.33 trillion (2009 est.)

$14.72 trillion (2008 est.)

$14.62 trillion (2010 est.)

2.8% (2010 est.)

-2.6% (2009 est.)

0% (2008 est.)

$47,400 (2010 est.)

$46,700 (2009 est.)

$48,300 (2008 est.)

153.9 million

9.6% (2010 est.)

9.3% (2009 est.)

12% (2004 est.)

45 (2007)

40.8 (1997)

12.8% of GDP (2010 est.)

58.9% of GDP (2010 est.)

53.5% of GDP (2009 est.)

1.4% (2010 est.)

-0.3% (2009 est.)

0.5% (31 December 2009)

0.86% (31 December 2008)

3.25% (31 December 2009 est.)

5.09% (31 December 2008 est.)

$1.74 trillion (31 December 2010 est)

$1.722 trillion (31 December 2009 est)

$12.39 trillion (31 December 2009)

$12.46 trillion (31 December 2008)

$32.61 trillion (31 December 2009 est.)

$31.53 trillion (31 December 2008 est.)

$15.08 trillion (31 December 2009)

$11.74 trillion (31 December 2008)

$19.95 trillion (31 December 2007)

wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton; beef, pork, poultry, dairy products; fish; forest products

highly diversified, world leading, high-technology innovator, second largest industrial output in world; petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining

3.3% (2010 est.)

4.11 trillion kWh (2008 est.)

3.873 trillion kWh (2008 est.)

24.08 billion kWh (2008 est.)

57.02 billion kWh (2008 est.)

9.056 million bbl/day (2009 est.)

18.69 million bbl/day (2009 est.)

1.704 million bbl/day (2008 est.)

11.31 million bbl/day (2008 est.)

19.12 billion bbl (1 January 2010 est.)

593.4 billion cu m (2009 est.)

646.6 billion cu m (2009 est.)

30.35 billion cu m (2009 est.)

106.1 billion cu m (2009 est.)

6.928 trillion cu m (1 January 2010 est.)

-$561 billion (2010 est.)

-$378.4 billion (2009 est.)

$1.27 trillion (2010 est.)

$1.069 trillion (2009 est.)

agricultural products (soybeans, fruit, corn) 9.2%, industrial supplies (organic chemicals) 26.8%, capital goods (transistors, aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers, telecommunications equipment) 49.0%, consumer goods (automobiles, medicines) 15.0%

Canada 19.37%, Mexico 12.21%, China 6.58%, Japan 4.84%, UK 4.33%, Germany 4.1% (2009)

$1.903 trillion (2010 est.)

$1.575 trillion (2009 est.)

agricultural products 4.9%, industrial supplies 32.9% (crude oil 8.2%), capital goods 30.4% (computers, telecommunications equipment, motor vehicle parts, office machines, electric power machinery), consumer goods 31.8% (automobiles, clothing, medicines, furniture, toys)

China 19.3%, Canada 14.24%, Mexico 11.12%, Japan 6.14%, Germany 4.53% (2009)

$NA (31 December 2010 est.)

$130.8 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$13.98 trillion (30 June 2010)

$13.75 trillion (31 December 2008)

$2.581 trillion (31 December 2010 est.)

$2.41 trillion (31 December 2009 est.)

$3.597 trillion (31 December 2010 est.)

$3.367 trillion (31 December 2009 est.)