The International Monetary Fund has pared its forecast for US economic growth this year, citing strains and risks from the eurozone debt crisis, as well as uncertainties over a “fiscal cliff” which could jeopardise the fragile economic recovery with negative spillovers to the rest of the world.
The U.S.’s recovery from the 2008 financial crisis has led to widespread hope that America has the capacity to stay the course and provide a backstop for the rest of the world in the midst of the euro crisis. But a closer analysis of America’s recent economic growth suggests that the economy may be even more vulnerable to foreign crises than before.
In 2008, toxic subprime mortgages triggered a full-scale financial crisis in the United States and while the economy is moving towards a slow recovery, America’s housing market is still not out of the woods.
China is now one of the fastest growing international buyers in the U.S. real estate industry, reported the Financial Times on Wednesday, with a “huge” influx of wealthy mainland Chinese said to be looking towards purchasing high-end properties across the U.S.
The United States produced 6 million barrels of oil per day in the first quarter of 2012, the highest production rate since 1998. According to an energy official, the US could overtake some of the world’s biggest producers in the next decade.
According to the data recently released by the United States Energy Information Administration, the 6 percent oil production growth is the primary result of increases in output in North Dakota, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.
Growing inequality in the U.S. is not only killing the economy, but it threatens to undermine the nation’s values and identity. America today can no longer regard itself as the land of opportunity that it once was, with equality of opportunity less evident than in Europe.
Though six factors now suggest that US economy is slowly and steadily healing, a lot more needs to happen – indeed, urgently – to restore America’s traditional vigour and vitality.
NEWPORT BEACH – Six internal factors suggest that the United States’ economy is slowly healing. For some observers, these factors were deemed sufficient to form the critical mass needed to propel the economy into escape velocity.
Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has signalled that the American central bank is prepared to take any necessary steps required to protect the US economy if the European crisis deepens.
Bernanke told Congress that Europe poses “significant risks” to the US economy, adding that US economic recovery is not guaranteed. He said Fed officials need to monitor economic trends and data closely, including key indicators such as job creation.
America’s federal debt could be double the size of its GDP by 2037, said a report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Tuesday, with debt figures already set to reach 70 percent of the nation’s GDP by end of the year.
According to the CBO, America’s budget deficit is presently the highest it has been since 1945, with lower tax revenues and increased federal spending to blame for the nation’s soaring debt.
The US Defense Department consumes more energy than any other department or sector in the country, spending around $20 billion annually by some estimates; but ambitious plans to make it the nation’s green leader have been swept under the rug over budgetary concerns that smack of campaign politics.
