Growth of the GDP since WWII
The Growth of the Gross Domestic Product and Economic Issues in the United States since War World II In this essay I will explain the growth of the gross domestic and economic issues faced by the United States since the end of World War II. ... Usually GDP is compared to the previous quarter or year. For example, if the year-to-year GDP was up 3%, it means that the economy has grown by 3% over the last year. Measuring GDP is complicated but, at its most basic, the calculation can be done in one of two ways: either you add up what everybody earned in a year, or you add up what everybody spent. ... Significant changes in GDP, whether up or down, usually has a significant effect on the stock market. ... Investors really worry about negative GDP growth, which is one of the factors economists use to determine if an economy is in a recession. The gross domestic product has increased every year since the end of World War II. At the beginning of World War II in 1940, United States GDP was at 101. ... Five years after the war’s end United States GDP was almost tripled at 294. ... Between 1950 and 2000 the GDP grew at an annual rate of about 3. ... Wartime rationing had suppressed consumer spending for several years and with the growth in optimism and a booming economy, consumer spending compensated for the fall in military spending. ... This economic growth continued in to the 1960’s. ... The Johnson administration was probably the most activist government since the Roosevelt administration, and continued in the Roosevelt tradition of using this activism to support both pro-labor and pro-business objectives. ... During the Ford administration and every administration since, inflation has become the province of the American central bank, the Federal Reserve. ... Ronald Reagan believed that regulations and paperwork were the real impediments to prosperity and growth. ... economic policy of any administration since the New Deal. "Only by reducing the growth of government," said Ronald Reagan; "can we increase the growth of the economy." Reagans 1981 Program for Economic Recovery had four major policy objectives: (1) reduce the growth of government spending, (2) reduce the marginal tax rates on income from both labor and capital, (3) reduce regulation, and (4) reduce inflation by controlling the growth of the money supply. These major policy changes, in turn, were expected to increase saving and investment, increase economic growth, balance the budget, restore healthy financial markets, and reduce inflation and interest rates.