Major Economic Problems Facing the United States

by Thomas Heffner on September 14, 2010

The United States is facing economic disaster on a scale few nations have ever experienced. Most people are unaware of the easily observable signs of this emerging crisis. While we persist in our superpower mentality, we have quietly become a second-class country in many respects.
We no longer produce what we need to sustain ourselves, we import much more than we export, and we are selling off our assets and taking on massive debts to sustain a standard of living we can no longer afford. Not only was this not the way we became a superpower but it is a sure way to lose this status.
Foreign countries are using the funds earned through our trade deficits to buy many of our strategic companies. Over the past 10 years, foreign interests have purchased an unprecedented $8 Trillion worth of US assets.
The game plan of our international competitors is to render us completely dependent on foreign production, innovation, and financing. In losing domestic self-sufficiency, national security and leverage in foreign affairs will suffer greatly.
We are failing even to acknowledge predatory foreign trade practices undermining US industry. Instead we encourage US manufacturers to design, engineer, and produce in third world markets like Mexico and China.

http://economyincrisis.org/content/major-economic-problems-facing-united-states

Economic History

The Economic History of Norway

Ola Honningdal Grytten, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration

Overview

Norway, with its population of 4.6 million on the northern flank of Europe, is today one of the most wealthy nations in the world, both measured as GDP per capita and in capital stock. On the United Nation Human Development Index, Norway has been among the three top countries for several years, and in some years the very top nation. Huge stocks of natural resources combined with a skilled labor force and the adoption of new technology made Norway a prosperous country during the nineteenth and twentieth century.
Table 1 shows rates of growth in the Norwegian economy from 1830 to the present using inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP). This article splits the economic history of Norway into two major phases — before and after the nation gained its independence in 1814.

Table 1
Phases of Growth in the Real Gross Domestic Product of Norway, 1830-2003

(annual growth rates as percentages)

Year	GDP	GDP per capita
1830-1843	1.91	0.86
1843-1875	2.68	1.59
1875-1914	2.02	1.21
1914-1945	2.28	1.55
1945-1973	4.73	3.81
1973-2003	3.28	2.79
1830-2003	2.83	2.00

Source: Grytten (2004b)
http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/grytten.norway