ABSTRACT
In the United States economy there has been a great deal of variation in the number of firms in a particular industry, ranging from one to hundreds. The direct influence of production and financial planning on the global economy has become approximately equal to the influence of market processes. The new technology produced huge economies of scale. Thus the forces of production are not a self-propelling engine that moves an economy along; they influence and are influenced by their context. The purchase and sale of goods and services occurred in the "private sector" or "informal economy" but were usually illegal and in any case ignored by the planners. Expansion is based partly on economies of scale, partly on the need to manage and/or devise the latest technology, partly on the need to stay ahead of the competition by reinvesting profits, and partly on the rapidly expanding market in which competition operates.
