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United States

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Britain's American colonies broke with the mother country in 1776 and were recognized as the new nation of the United States of America following the Treaty of Paris in 1783. During the 19th and 20th centuries, 37 new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the North American continent and acquired a number of overseas possessions. The two most traumatic experiences in the nation's history were the Civil War (1861-65), in which a northern Union of states defeated a secessionist Confederacy of 11 southern slave states, and the Great Depression of the 1930s, an economic downturn during which about a quarter of the labor force lost its jobs. Buoyed by victories in World Wars I and II and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the US remains the world's most powerful nation state. Over a span of more than five decades, the economy has achieved steady growth, low unemployment and inflation, and rapid advances in technology.[1]

See also: History of money and banking in the US

Economical characteristics

  • Currency: United States dollar (ISO code: USD)
  • Central bank discount rate: 0.5% (31 December 2009)[1]
  • Commercial banks lending rate: 5.09% (31 December 2008)[1]
  • Stock of money (M1): $1.436 trillion (31 December 2008)[1]
  • Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $10.99 trillion (31 December 2008)[1]


Statistics

Statistic / Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
GDP (million USD)[2] 9 216 200 9 764 800 10 075 900 10 417 600 10 908 000 11 630 900 12 364 100 13 116 500 13 741 600 14 093 300
Govt. debt (% of GDP)[3] 32.957 44.103 46.834 47.680 48.016 47.128 47.484 55.662
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)[4] 20.431 18.187 17.531 17.609 18.856 19.569 19.659 17.874
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)[5] 19.857 20.717 21.324 21.186 21.590 21.442 21.803 23.464
Debt to revenue (years) 1.613 2.425 2.671 2.708 2.546 2.408 2.415 3.114

References

Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named CIA_US
  2. ↑ World Bank. "United States: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-21.
  3. ↑ World Bank. "United States: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-21.
  4. ↑ World Bank. "United States: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-21.
  5. ↑ World Bank. "United States: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-21.

External links

Retrieved from "https://wiki.freecapitalists.org/index.php?title=United_States&oldid=4975"