ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the current state of the American economy and the anxieties that have arisen as a result of its perceived weaknesses. For most Americans, a successful economy made for a successful political system. Economic performance can be measured in numerous ways and even experts often disagree about which statistics give the truest picture of the American economy. Economists dispute how exactly to define a recession. The United States has been transformed in recent decades into a post-industrial economy and society. Whereas an industrial economy relies mainly on the extraction and processing of raw materials, a post-industrial economic system centres upon the provision of services. Along with post-industrialism has come the globalisation of the American economy. The US economy endured a sustained crisis from 1973 until the early 1990s, and then recovered only in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Many predict that China will overtake the United States as the world's largest economy within a few decades.
