Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Economic inequality in the United States has been steadily increasing since the 1980s as well and economists such as Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, and Peter Orszag, politicians like Barack Obama and Paul Ryan, and media entities have engaged in debates and accusations over the role of tax policy changes in perpetuating economic inequality.
A statement on the government's website said the State Council had approved a plan to invest 4 trillion yuan in infrastructure and social welfare by the end of 2010. [5] [6] This stimulus, equivalent to US$586 billion, represented a pledge comparable to that subsequently announced by the United States, but which came from an economy only one third the size. [7]
Initially, Fed officials hinted in December 2016 that fiscal policy stimulus (i.e., tax cuts and increased government spending) in an economy already near full employment and growing near its maximum sustainable pace of around 2%, might be counteracted by tightening monetary policy (e.g., raising interest rates) to offset the risk of inflation.
Blinder and Watson estimated that the economy was in recession for 49 quarters from 1949–2013; 8 of these quarters were under Democrats, with 41 under Republicans. [1] The 2020 recession brings that to 50 quarters total in recession, 42 under Republicans (84%) and 8 under Democrats (16%). [27]
Capital gains are excluded for purely practical reasons. The Census doesn't ask about them, so they can't be included in inequality statistics. Obviously, the rich earn much more from investments than the poor. As a result, real levels of income inequality in America are much higher than the official Census Bureau figures would suggest.
Consumer spending accounts for the vast majority of the US economy, about 70% of it. Spending accelerated sharply in the second quarter to an annual rate of 2.3%, up from 1.5% in the first quarter ...
When the private sector is unable to grow the economy sufficiently, government spending can make up for the shortfall, although this increases the deficit and debt in the short-run. Many economists have argued, as Keynes did, that the time for fiscal austerity is during the economic boom, not the bust. [20] [21]
For much of the past decade, policymakers and analysts have decried America's incredibly low savings rate, noting that U.S. households save a fraction of the money of the rest of the world.