The paper examines past and future changes that might affect the current economic situation in the United States.
The paper looks at changes that have occurred in the past year, as well as changes which are underway, which are likely to affect the current economical situation in America. Among incidents from the past year, the paper looks at the continuing decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ, increasing unemployment, rising corporate accounting scandals and the ongoing aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Future problems foreseen to impact the economy are the laying off of thousands of workers from big companies and their loss of health and pension security.
“Several events have occurred or will soon be resolved that likely will affect the economy in 2003. First, the rapid, sharp, and seemingly unrelentless decline in the United States stock markets over the past two and one-half years has wiped away more than $678 billion of retiree wealth according to an estimate based on the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study. Likewise, employees who had received stock options as part of their compensation have found that their options have either drastically lessened in value or become totally worthless. Another effect of the bear market of the past two and one-half years is that many high profile and well-respected companies such as American Express, General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Lucent, Motorola, Oracle, and others have laid off tens and hundreds of thousands of employees, resulting in an increase in the nation’s unemployment rate.”